Consumption, Resources, and the Environment: What You Need to Know

 

This blog is intended for anyone who’s interested in being more environmentally conscious and wants to better understand the link between their lifestyle and how it relates to the environment.


Have you ever stopped and looked around at the things in your house such as your electronic devices, lamps, and decor, and wondered where it comes from? We are so focused on everything in our little “bubble” that we don’t look around and wonder how these items affect our environment. To better understand the current environmental crisis, we need to look at three things. How our consumption is tied to the environmental crisis, how the carbon cycle reacts, and the results of climate change.


We looked at how humans rely on renewable and non-renewable resources. We currently consume natural resources 1.7 times faster than the Earth can regenerate them. It's driven by population growth and overconsumption lifestyles in developed nations. Reserves to production (R/P) ratio measures how many years a non-renewable resource will last if current production rates continue. The ratio of proven reserves to how fast we are extracting (R) is divided by the current production level (P) (Lesson 02). When we look at our reserves to production ratio, there’s roughly 40 to 50 years of remaining supply at current consumption rate.


Our global economy is built on linear consumption which is an economic model that extracts raw materials, manufactures products, and discards them as waste. It fuels overconsumption by transforming raw materials into products that are swiftly disposed of. This boosts industrial output but drives significant environmental degradation, pollution, and resource depletion. Approximately 7% of materials are cycled back. Due to this, global waste is expected to increase by 70% by 2050.


Carbon moves between the atmosphere, oceans, and living things in a cycle. Our reliance on fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and natural gas, has caused a problem in the cycle. It disrupts the natural carbon cycle by releasing millions of years’ worth of stored carbon into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. The combustion increases carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere by 40% which drives warming temperatures. 


All in all, by transitioning to an economy that involves making products designed for longevity, recyclability and repairability, it will promote practices such as reusing, recycling, and refurbishing. Doing so will help reduce waste and resource depletion. 



Works Cited:


Lesson 02: Our Resources, Our Consumption, BBE 1002, UMN


“Sustainable Consumption and Production.” United Nations Sustainable Development, https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-consumption-production/.


“What Is the Linear Economy?” European Investment Bank, https://www.eib.org/en/stories/linear-economy-recycling.

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