Over population or over consumption?

The current world population as of March 2011 is 6.9 billion people.

http://www.worldometers.info/population/

The figure below obtained from the website above, shows the distribution of this population around the world

More statistics can be found from the main page of Worldometers...

http://www.worldometers.info/

As consumption continues to rise, and the threat of running out of resources is perceived by some, there still is a problem with the sustainability of the Earth.

Humanity's ecological footprint as a whole has been greater than the carrying capacity of the earth since the late 1970s. (Meadows D., Randers, J., Meadows, D., 2004)

Numerous predictions have declared that resources will become unavailable; including ones that said food will start depleting in the early 21st century (now).

Depleting oil reserves are a major debate as to when or if we will run out of oil. But most agree the prices are going to skyrocket as demand increases and easy oil is depleted.

There are a number of measures to evaluate which countries consume more, but the general consensus is the northwestern countries. The richer, lesser-populated countries of the Northwest are to blame for the worst consumption levels, the highest amount of carbon dioxide emissions.


See Paul Ehrlich and the debate... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_R._Ehrlich or  http://jayhanson.us/page27.htm


Paul Ehrlich - biologist, and Steven Hayward - Pacific Research institute

Is the problem overpopulation or over consumption or both?

As discussed in lecture, the interesting paradox is that the only way shown to slow population growth is through increasing education (particularly thorough women) and affluence (increasing income) to allow for less need of children for labour and more income directed towards better quality of life.

On the other hand, China's adoption of the one child per couple policy provided some success in slowing the country's population. There was of course some rebellion and hiding of children, though the results to this day show a prevention of about 300 million births, has helped people out of poverty and may be attributed to China's huge economic growth (Hayes, 2008).

But the fact that 20% of the population consumes 80% of the world's resources ...should be a giveaway.

"People in rich countries consume up to 10 times more natural resources than those in the poorest countries. On average, an inhabitant of North America consumes around 90 kilograms (kg) of resources each day. In Europe, consumption is around 45 kg per day, while in Africa people consume only around 10 kg per day." (Friends of the Earth Europe, 2009)

Compared to the amount of resources consumed by an average person in history to the average European, the weight of one's backpack is shown in the diagram below. (Friends of the Earth Europe, 2009)

Comparing across the globe...

The natural resources available are severely threatened by over-consumption. As developed countries continue at current levels, and developing countries are rapidly expanding, worldwide demand is threatening the environment through:

• Climate change, which affects humans on a global scale
• Ecosystem degradation, which degrades the ecological services they provide, including reduced fresh water reserves, forest depletion, and many species under threat of extinction.
• Fertile land is being eroded, such as that in China where the desert is expanding, losing topsoil and agricultural land.  (Friends of the Earth Europe, 2009)

While, the extraction of many non-renewable resources is already reaching or nearing a peak... “Peak-oil”  (Friends of the Earth Europe, 2009)


Some facts about the world's resources from "Home" (documentary) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU:

The world spends 12 times more on military expenditures than on international aid.

Over 50% of grain traded around the world is used for animal feed or biofuels.

40% of arable land has suffered long-term damage. 

Every year, 13 million hectares of forest disappear.

3/4 of fishing grounds are exhausted, depleted or in dangerous decline.

Industry is probably the biggest to blame through inefficiency, but they are ultimately providing us the products we consume.  Nonetheless, industrial processes can be improved.

Another notable Chinese initiative includes the three step approach to industry improvement:

• Individual firms must seek higher efficiency by reducing resource consumption, emission of pollutants and waste 
• Groups of industries should reuse and recycle the byproducts of component industries 
• Integrate production in regions so that reuse and recycling opportunities and maximized. (Ling, 2011)

An example of this is to create a group eco-industrial park that incorporates all of the wastes into a streamline of industrial processes to minimize the waste eventually going out.


In researching eco-industrial parks, one I came across in Canada is shown below. It is a bit dry and focused on investment, but skip ahead to about three-quarters the way through just to get an idea.

It is only up to us to reduce our impact on the environment. We need to create better policy and infrastructure. We need to reduce our consumption of everyday products, water, and energy, and have fewer kids!  ; )

References

Friends of the Earth Europe (2009) SERI, Global (2000) Overconsumption? Our use of the world's natural resources. Retrieved February 26 from http://www.foeeurope.org/publications/2009/Overconsumption_Sep09.pdf

Hayes, J. (2008 - updated February 2011) One Child Policy in China - Facts and Details. Retrieved February 26, 2011 from http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=128&catid=4&subcatid=15

Ling, C. (2011) Personal Communication: ENSC 301 - Lecture Notes Population and Consumption. Royal Roads University, Victoria, B.C.

Meadows D., Randers, J., Meadows, D. (2004)  Limits to Growth: The 30 year up-date. Chelsea Green Publishing Company, White River Junction, VT.