By 2050, world consumption of resources will grow threefold
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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World consumption of natural resources may triple by 2050 and reach 140 billion tons a year, warns the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
Specialists note that the planet is not capable of supporting the observed growth in the use of minerals and ores, fossil and vegetable fuels, and we have known all this for a long time. Alas, this, it seems, is not known to people who belong to the category of "decision-makers". For them, economic growth is directly related to an increase in the rate of resource consumption. The UN calls for disengaging these concepts. Moreover, by the year 2050 we will be 9.3 billion, and the current developing countries will turn into prosperous ones, and there too they will buy expensive advertised computers only in order to break them in front of the camera and put a spot on YouTube 3D.
UNEP notes that the cheap and high-quality sources of some of the necessary materials are already coming to an end. First of all, we are talking, of course, about oil, copper and gold. Of course, obtaining such materials in the future will require more volumes of fuel and water. It's time to learn to do more with less, then production will not depend on economic growth, but ahead of it.
Today, people in rich countries consume an average of 16 tons of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass products per year. In some countries, this figure is 40 tons. At the same time, one average Indian consumes only 4 tons.
The UN calls for immediate freezing of consumption in rich countries and a serious rethinking of investment in technological, financial and social innovations. "People are convinced that the ecological price we pay for economic wealth is an inevitable evil. We can no longer and should not act as if there was no compromise, "UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner cries.
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