Growth of the economy was largely due to exploitation of natural resources (oil, coal, wood, minerals, soil, fishing...) Transport is a central piece in the economy, which has allowed to get all kind of products delivered to a larger number of customers in an also growing population, therefore expanding the market exponentially. A larger market entails a higher production and, to this end, the utilization of a larger number of resources either for the final product as for its production.
At the start of the industrial revolution natural resources hadn’t been exploited intensively, and therefore their exploitation seemed inexhaustible. The industrial revolution favoured the growth and development of capitalism, which is based on an unlimited growth. This continuous growth involves an increasingly higher production and consumption in a world that is not infinite, in which lots of its resources are not renewable, and although a great part of them is (wood, soil, fishing, etc), its renewal rate is slower than the exploitation we inflict on them.
It is logical to think that we will get to a point in which our growth won’t be compatible with the existing resources. We have already reached that moment, we are consuming more than nature is able to offer us, and what is worse, the incredibly bad administration and distribution we make of these valuable resources.
This topic will be extended in future posts, for the time being I leave you with a thought-provoking image. In it you can see the consumption of mineral resources per capita in the USA and the reserves left (in years) according to the current consumption rate and according to half of the current rate. It is interesting to think about what will happen as we start exhausting them... our ability to recycle these minerals starting from already made and thrown away objects will also be very important.
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