The rise of the circular economy and sustainability brings change to everything around us. From the way we source, make, and distribute product to the things we consume. AI, Robotics, IoT, and other advanced Technology will revolutionize the way we live. Imagine a world where we renew resources vs. deplete them, where we breath clean air, and the water we drink is not filled with chemicals. A more sustainable future is a reality.
According to the Guardian in the article “The six natural resources most drained by our 7 billion people” the top 6 natural resources that humans deplete the most are as follow:
1. Water: Freshwater only makes 2.5% of the total volume of the world’s water, which is about 35 million km3. But considering 70% of that freshwater is in the form of ice and permanent snow cover and that we only have access to 200,000km3 of freshwater overall, it isn’t surprising that demand for water could soon exceed supply. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations is predicting that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity.
2. Oil: The fear of reaching peak oil continues to haunt the oil industry. The BP Statistical Review of World Energy in June measured total global oil at 188.8 million tonnes, from proved oil resources at the end of 2010. This is only enough to oil for the next 46.2 years, should global production remain at the current rate.
3. Natural gas: A similar picture to oil exists for natural gas, with enough gas in proven reserves to meet 58.6 years of global production at the end of 2010.
4. Phosphorus: Without this element, plants cannot grow. Essential for fertiliser, phosphate rock is only found in a handful of countries, including the US, China and Morocco. With the need to feed 7 billion people, scientists from the Global Phosphorus Research Initiative predict we could run out of phosphorus in 50 to 100 years unless new reserves of the element are found.
5. Coal: This has the largest reserves left of all the fossil fuels, but as China and other developing countries continue to increase their appetite for coal, demand could finally outstrip supply. As it is, we have enough coal to meet 188 years of global production.
6. Rare earth elements: Scandium and terbium are just two of the 17 rare earth minerals that are used in everything from the powerful magnets in wind turbines to the electronic circuits in smartphones. The elements are not as rare as their name suggests but currently 97% of the world’s supply comes from China and they can restrict supplies at will. Exact reserves are not known.
Given the promise of the circular economy the future of resource depletion is hopefully short-lived. The problem will be the inertia needed to switch over world economies from the dependence on Oil, Gas, Coal, and getting clean sustainable sources of water to land-locked countries.
In fact, in the article “’Make things last’: Can the circular economy save the planet?” author Irene Banos Ruiz describes that:
Europeans use up 16,000 kilograms of materials per person per year – 6,000 kilograms of that end up as waste. In some EU countries, more than 80 percent of the household waste still piles up in landfills.
The good news is that people are waking up to the fact that this is not a lasting future for their children.
Ruiz goes on to explain that:
At this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, the Scottish Government received the global Award for Circular Economy Governments, Cities and Regions for its efforts to bring about the transition away from a traditional linear economy.
With countries, businesses, and people giving so much attention to sustainability and creating a more lasting world for our children what can you do to expedite this reality? How can you care of yourself, your family and the world all at once? Sustainability.
Reality Changing Observations:
Q1. How do you live sustainably?
Q2. What could you do to be more sustainable?
Q3. Would you be more willing to buy something that was made sustainably?
Sissyfuss on Sun, 16th Sep 2018 7:43 am
Capitalism can’t do circular, only upwards. Socialism might do circular but the avaricious bipedal hominids don’t want circular Socialism. Something must give and it won’t be the avaricious so let us proceed to chaos theory where our fate awaits us.
onlooker on Sun, 16th Sep 2018 8:50 am
Yep, sustainability is an impossibility considering our numbers and the materialism paradigm we are so eager to embrace
DerHundistLos on Sun, 16th Sep 2018 9:24 am
If asked to describe the geography of Nigeria, what images come to mind. For most people, including me, the image is mile upon mile of endless equatorial rainforest, and this was the case as late as 1980. Fast forward to 2018 and according to a comprehensive study cnducted by the University of Maryland using detailed satellite imagery, just 4% of Nigeria’s original forest cover remains. In less than 40 years, 96% of virgin cover is gone forever due to a combination of an exploding population (1980 pop. 68 million–2018 pop. 199 million) and an insatiable demand for charcoal.
How many times have the cornucopians declared there’s no way all of the forest will all be cut down?
Sissyfuss on Sun, 16th Sep 2018 5:27 pm
You could be describing the New Easter Island, Derhund. Even ancient history rhymes.
onlooker on Sun, 16th Sep 2018 6:00 pm
Except now the whole planet is Easter Island. Maybe some Aliens will discover our ruins as we discovered the Statues of Easter Island
DerHundistLos on Sun, 16th Sep 2018 6:12 pm
Yes indeed, Siss and onlooker. We know how this story ends for the history of humanity on Easter Island is the Earth in microcosm.
Before the arrival of man, Easter Island was heaven on earth. Rich volcanic soils, moderate temperatures, abundant rainfall, forests teeming with unique flora and fauna combined to create a paradise. Among Easter Island’s species found nowhere else was the world’s largest palm tree. The tree grew to a height of 100 feet and had a girth of six feet.
Then the Destroyer of Worlds arrived in the form of seafaring Polynesians. For a time, the land produced such bounty that sufficient leisure time existed for the human inhabitants to create the toppled over ghostly stone statues that still dot the island. Human population numbers grew far out of proportion to what was sustainable- poor farming practices eroded fertile soil, animal and plant species found nowhere else were driven extinct. Incredibly, the very last tree on the island was cut down. What kind of stupidity would allow this to happen (sound familiar)? Following this, no timber existed to build the canoes necessary to harvest the remaining source of available protein.
The result: When Captain James Cook discovered the island, he was shocked to find a small parasite infested human population engaged in cannibalistic internecine tribal warfare. Welcome to the future.
Our response? BAU as we fast forward to the abyss. THIS is the definition of insanity.
makati1 on Sun, 16th Sep 2018 6:37 pm
Anyone who has not read Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” might want to pick up a copy for this winter’s reading. It is a story of greed, corruption and politics that mirrors the direction the world, and especially the US, seems to be headed. I am currently rereading it and see many points of similarity. About 1,000 pages. Enjoy~
onlooker on Sun, 16th Sep 2018 6:58 pm
And wasn’t Ayn Rand’s whole philosophy centered around the virtue of selfishness Makati?
onlooker on Sun, 16th Sep 2018 7:00 pm
Hope this can help at least somebody. Well as our minds work feverishly every day my philosophy is more like this:
There once was a king who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried. The king looked at all the pictures.
But there were only two he really liked, and he had to choose between them. One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for peaceful towering mountains all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.
The other picture had mountains, too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky, from which rain fell and in which lightning played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all.
But when the king looked closely, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest – in perfect peace.
The king chose the second picture.
Peace isn’t something that just randomly happens to us. And it doesn’t always look like we think it should.
Lasting inner peace is something we choose.
makati1 on Sun, 16th Sep 2018 11:40 pm
Onlooker, I have no idea what her philosophy was. I only know that it is a good story with a lot of today’s America in it. Anyone who does NOT use his ability to his own benefit is a fool. Few today do not have the ability to earn a living. Only governments get in the way.
We are all born with different abilities. Does that mean we should all live down to the common denominator? I don’t think so. Would you like to live a Bangladeshi life?
Perhaps the worse sin we commit is keeping those who are born with defects alive, because we can? We can do nothing that will make their handicapped lives better. We just feel better for ourselves. THAT is selfishness.
Cloggie on Mon, 17th Sep 2018 12:04 am
“And wasn’t Ayn Rand’s whole philosophy centered around the virtue of selfishness Makati?”
Yes.
“Onlooker, I have no idea what her philosophy was.”
Israel first.
Even libertarian central LewRockwell.com distances itself from this libertarian icon Alisa Rosenbaum (“Ayn Rand”):
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/08/murray-n-rothbard/ayn-rands-monstrous-views-on-the-middle-east/
Rosenbaum: “Palestinians are racist savages”.lol
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lx8RmuBRldA
Just another Israel Firster. I don’t like here aura.
DerHundistLos on Tue, 18th Sep 2018 3:45 am
Siss:
And it causes me such profound sadness. Having spent considerable time in both lowland and cloud rainforest, I am always so moved by the beauty, diversity of life, cleanliness, that it feels like what has been described as religuous experience. When you’re in a perfectly balanced ecosystem, which is one that has not been contaminated by the touch of man, there are no swarms of mosquitoes. The point of this is to say that I have an understanding what is lost when we destroy the rainforest and the loss is unrecoverable. The idea that we can replant destroyed areas and somehow the forest will magically appear is stupidity and human hubris.
Just imagine now that 96% of Nigeria forests are history. All the wildlife gone forever as they ate their way through the forests for bushmeat.
What happens to these masses when the population of Nigeria surpasses that of the US by 2040? Europe? More grain shipments thanks to the Gates Foundation?