Image courtesy of Stephen Codrington. Planet Geography 3rd Edition (2005)

part 1 of 5

In a previous post – organizing sustainability – I recommended a framework for transitioning from industrial age to sustainable age design using a strategy framework to consider design decisions based on ecology, energy, society, and economy. The first step toward sustainability within ecology is resource preservation. That will be the focus of this and three following posts. According to the National Academy of Sciences, “human consumption surpassed the regenerative capacity of the planet around 1980, and we are now pushing its systems well beyond their ability to heal.” Many would read that with great pessimism and assume we’ve crossed over a threshold of no return. But I tend to view situations as glass half full, rather than half empty. But the time to do something is now. Spending another twenty or thirty years debating next steps would be irresponsible and imprudent.

Humans are wired to consider scarcity over abundance. It’s a vital survival instinct to routinely focus attention on the risk of supply shortage. I’ve seen Dr. David Suzuki present a number of times and a memorable part of his lectures is the idea that we are the only animal on the planet that understands time. In particular, we understand the concept of past, present, and future. Humans have the ability to plan for the future, where other animals live in the moment. Combine that survival skill with a predisposition toward seeing scarcity and you have a powerful predilection for worst case scenarios. But it’s those two skills we need to harness most when considering natural resources.

If the developing nations of the world – primarily China, India, and Brazil – were to consume resources at the same rate as the United States in their drive to achieve our standard of living, three additional planets would be required to supply their needs. If we were to look at income as just one measure of living standard, it took the United Kingdom more than one hundred years to double their income during the first industrial revolution. After it became industrialized, the US doubled income levels in fifty years. More recently South Korea did the same in twenty-five years, and China was able to do it in just nine. Advancing technology and an unstoppable human desire to advance will mean doubling at even faster rates in the future.

According to the UN, there’s a direct connection between standard of living and resource consumption. Eighty-six percent of natural resources are consumed by the world’s richest twenty percent, while four fifths of humanity only consume fourteen percent. The poorest nations with the lowest standard of living consume the least resources. The US represents less than five percent of global population, yet it consumes forty percent of all natural resources. It’s an issue of math. If a country like China, who represents twenty percent of global population, consumes at the same rate as the US, there’s likely to be extreme scarcity of vital resources. If India, Brazil, and many others strive to do the same, there exists a looming problem requiring immediate attention.

Read more resource preservation – context