Sustainable Resources

Description:

Human’s sustainability, which can be interpreted as the potential of long-term maintenance of wellbeing depends on the wellbeing of the natural world and the responsible use of resources. But sadly, with the rise in human numbers all over the world, the demand for resources has also increased. And thereby the human consumption of resource is going up, which results in the depletion of resource and the degradation of environment.

Historically, humanity has responded to a demand for more resources by trying to increase supply. Sustainability, instead, applies demand management of all goods and services by promoting reduced consumption, using renewable resources where possible, and encouraging practices that minimize resource intensity while maximizing resource productivity.

Another important issue is related to the distribution of resources. Developed countries use more resources than developing countries.

Enablers:

1.Population

More people live in this planet, more resource is needed.

2.Technology

Technology can affect resource in two different ways. On one hand, technology development can require more resource. For example the invention of cars requires fuels. On the other hand, technology can also help people save non-renewable resource and make better use of renewable resource. Such recycling and solar power.

3.Value/Education

Returning human use of natural resources to within sustainable limits will require a major collective effort. People need to recoganize the current situation and build up right value system about the sustainability, which requires continuous education in the different stage of people's life.

Inhibitors:

1. War/Nature Disasters

When such cases happened, resource sustainability is no longer human being's first priority. At that time, to be sustainable is to be alive by all means.

2. Poverty/Sickness.

Same reason as above.

Paradigms:

The Limits to Growth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth
Book published by the Club of Rome in 1972 describing the consequences of a rapidly growing population with finite resources. This book is interested only in the broad behavior modes of the population-capital system. By behavior modes we mean the tendencies of the variables in the system (population or pollution, for example) to change as time progresses. A variable may increase, decrease, remain constant, oscillate, or combine several of these characteristic modes.
Updated in 2004 The Limits to Growth: The 30-year Update http://www.mnforsustain.org/meadows_limits_to_growth_30_year_update_2004.htm

Population: 6,706,993,152 (July 2008 est.)
Globally, the growth rate of the human population has been steadily declining since peaking in 1962 and 1963 at 2.20% per annum. In 2007 the growth rate was 1.19% per annum.

As of 2007, the average birth rate for the whole world is 20.3 per year per 1000 total population, which for a world population of 6.5 billion comes to 134 million babies per year.

Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of deaths per 1000 individuals per year; thus, a mortality rate of 9.5 in a population of 100,000 would mean 950 deaths per year in that entire population.

Web Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_development#Environmental_sustainability

http://www.scenariothinking.org/wiki/index.php/Image:Natural_Resource.doc