Human Consumption of Earth's Natural Resources Has Tripled in 40 Years

CLICK HERE - World Bank - Connect 4 Climate - Global Material Flows and Resource Productivity

CLICK HERE - Summary for Policymakers - Global Material Flows and Resource Productivity (44 page .PDF file)

CLICK HERE - REPORT - Global Material Flows and Resource Productivity (200 page .PDF file)

ecowatch.com - July 25, 2016

A report produced by the International Resource Panel (IRP), part of the UN Environment Programme, says rising consumption driven by a growing middle class has seen resources extraction increase from 22 billion tons in 1970 to 70 billon tons in 2010.

It refers to natural resources as primary materials and includes under this heading biomass, fossil fuels, metal ores and non-metallic minerals.

The increase in their use, the report warns, will ultimately deplete the availability of natural resources—causing serious shortages of critical materials and risking conflict.

Growing primary material consumption will affect climate change mainly because of the large amounts of energy involved in extraction, use, transport and disposal.

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CLICK HERE - UNEP - International Resource Panel