There are certainly a few people who are not familiar with the fact that human population is ever-developing these days. Give it in scientific fields like medicine, engineering or even computer science. Same goes to the increasing number of people existing now, which is a result of economic and environmental conditions we encounter at present times. Therefore, when we look at statistics of human population we can clearly see that now, in times of relative peace and prosperity, we have reached a number far higher than ever. Like said before, such an achievement would not be possible without the strong economics and natural resources. Undoubtedly a success one would say. Yet, some other ask ‘but how strong are these in fact?’.
Thomas
Cole "The Course of Empire: The Consummation of Empire"
Paul Gilding, a writer and an expert in
sustainability, gave a pretty core chilling speech about our exploitation of
Earth. According to his lecture, the current global economic would need roughly
50% more of Earth itself to be sustained. Rather upsetting news. However, where
lies the reason and the answer to that situation we face?
The explanation of diminishing natural
resources seems simple – we are overly exploiting it. Paul Gilding, however,
points out that the problem lies deeper in people mind-sets. Not only we tend
to waste goods but we also ignore and, as if purposely, deny taking
responsibility for our actions. In the end, natural resources go to waste,
bringing closer times of shortage and no prevention measures take place.
What is more, we do not consider slowing down
but in fact push unsustainable global economy even further. Why is that? Most
likely the answer is the fear of unknown, our liking for the current, expensive
and pleasant lifestyle or simply ignorance. Perhaps a little bit of all. After
all, it is very understandable people want to maintain good, satisfactory
living ways and turning it all into unknown reality seems not worth a risk.
But if nothing is done, what will the future bring?
But if nothing is done, what will the future bring?
Thomas
Cole: "The Course of Empire: Destruction"
According to many studies – a global crisis far
exceeding any other. The prediction of when it happens are also not comforting
– within 21st century. Collapse of the global market, shortage of
food and water, complete power cut as well as absolute loss of oil and coal are
consequences we will face. It does not stop there, however, since even war is
probable.
Such grim prognosis should cut us down to size
and motivate in preparing a prevention plan. And yet, it does not. At least not
as successfully since a great number of companies, governments and
entrepreneurs still do not take into consideration the actual status of natural
resources.
Why it is so? To answer that one would have to again take a look at human’s reasoning and the global denial of any economic problem we are facing.
Why it is so? To answer that one would have to again take a look at human’s reasoning and the global denial of any economic problem we are facing.
Thomas
Cole: "The Course of Empire: Desolation"
However, I believe that by emphasising the importance of the topic that Paul Gilding explained in his speech, we will increase the awareness among regular citizens. Constant stressing of the horrible consequences that we will eventually encounter would hopefully create a need to change for better and compel governments to develop new methods and ways to utilize natural resources in a more clever way. As the writer stated, ‘the fear of collapsing civilizations should bring us together and motivate to change things.’ We finally need to realize that the fate of our civilizations lies utterly in our hands. After all, it is worth saving.
- Would it be difficult for you to give up on some aspects of current pleasant lifestyle if it could save our civilisation from global crisis?
- Do you consider running out of some natural resources in the near future to be a fact?
- Is it not too late for our civilisation to be saved? Should we just stop caring about the future?
Comments
Running out of natural resources is certainly a threat so we should focus on improving our means of using renewable resources like water and air, and technology like electric cars.
The moment we stop caring about the future we are definitely doomed ;) so for now we should just focus on trying to learn about the ways we can improve our society.
Of course, running out of natural resources is possible. Many scientists all around the world are working on this problem and trying to find a solution. In my opinion, the problem lies in the fact that some countries use more natural resources than others. This creates situations where in some parts of the world there is a shortage of some kind of natural resource while in another part there is no such problem because population simply don't need to use it in such big amounts. If we only could somehow normalize usage of natural reserves we could at least partially solve the problem.
We do need to care about our future. As it was once said: "We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." If we stop carrying about the future of our civilization, future generations will have hard times while dealing with consequences of our past mistakes.
I think that the main issue with the usage of resources is not caring at all about how they are used. We use electric energy all of the time, it doesn't come out without any cost behind it.
That quotation that you've mentioned gave me some real creeps. We should really care more about the planet that we leave behind for the future generations. We won't be there forever, but hopefully, our planet will.
I guess it would be hard for me to give up on commodities, but up to a point, where it would be necessary.
Of course I consider running out of fossil fuels to be a fact. We are using up resources at an astounding rate and we can only hope that our alternative-powers-race will be up and running on the day when we find ourselves completely out of resources.
I don't think it is too late to save the civilization if we started now, but the problem is we won't. It will still take several more years before people start really caring about environment on a global scale.
I don't know about natural resources. I know that some are renewable and some are not. I think that non-renewable resources will eventually end, but I don't know what this means for us. Probably technology will develop so that we will replace resources with others.
It isn't too late, as long as we live, there is always hope, but it is not too much of a topic that interests me and it is hard to say how it really is.
Frankly speaking running out of SOME natural resources is not the big deal at all because some of them could be easily replaced. I consider that humanity will always find a solution how to live with or without some natural resources.
It’s not too late for our civilization to be saved but we have already waste a lot of time and we should take this fact into consideration.
Yes, I do believe that. Also it's worth mentioning the demand for freshwater is soon expected to exceed the supply. By soon meaning
'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.'
Taking into consideration the industry we already have and demands it creates every day I think it's not possible to peacefully stop the process and save natural resources. I also don't think we need to. Maybe draining the planet and going into space is the right step to do or maybe we will find a way to be sustainable by using renewables or maybe we will actually face some kind of global breakdown.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure we will run out of oil, gas or some metal soon. People tend to not care about future that much. Only if this future can give them some profit. But i believe that it's not too late to save civilization and humanity. Just we should really take a look at what we are doing and what is going to happen then, and start make right decisions and find solutions for problems, that are sure to happen in the closest future.
2. I do not necessarily know much about this. I think, however, that there is a possibility that certain raw materials will end up in the end. I hope that there are organisations that control this.
3.As I wrote above, we must take care of the Earth for future generations. It is never too late, so we should not give up.
2. Fossils are deplorable. That’s a fact indeed but I’m not worried too much about it. Thanks to technological advancement some of the future problems will be mitigated. And once there’s some material that cannot be extracted by normal means anymore. There will be economical insensitive to develop alternative. Humanity has shown that it can adapt to the changing circumstances and there’s no need to worry to much ahead of time. Of course, that’s not to say that we shouldn’t care for the future. If for example, we could lower the birthrates of some overpopulated countries we should try.
3. There’s a lot of things beyond our individual control. Being conscious of the problems you mentioned is important but doesn’t solve the problem of humans dealing with it in this complicated structure of human society that is in state of barely controllable chaos.
a different rules.
But answering to Your question - I think that natural resources are running out too fast. Lack of them will be a huuuuge problem. It'll affect everyone. In my opinion, it's never too late for any activities leading to saving at least our closest enviroment - We have to bring awerness to people that simply don' care - that should be our main plan.
Do you consider running out of some natural resources in the near future to be a fact?
Im not sure, there is a reason why global thinkers and visionaries think and work on renewable sources of energy. But if by near future you mean like 30 years or even my(our) lifetime i dont think running out of any important resources is a thing. We will run out of oil and coal but not in our lifetime.
We should not stop caring about the "future" but also we should recognise that given countries different development stages it would be hard to enforce any kind of global regulations. remember no technology is free, and no regulations are altruistic our governments and companies will always think of the profit first.
Yes. It's a natural fact, that everything is limited.
I don't know. Maybe we should consider doing some things to prevent disaster.
I think we will run out of some natural resources shortly ~ 5-10 years, but I'm not afraid of it because we will or even already found replacements. The world we know might change like we can change from gas oil to water or another power source so the vehicles on the streets might change their look.
I'm an optimist. There is always a way. We need to find it. We should care about future, but don't stop the growth.
I am not familiar with the global crisis - I mean I don't see or feel it on a regular basis. However, I am confident that I would give up on some aspects of my current pleasant lifestyle if I helped our planet and civilisation.
Do you consider running out of some natural resources in the near future to be a fact?
I need to disagree with that. Sure, there may be a lot of natural resources in the Earth that are about to vanish pretty soon, but with our technology we are able to recreate them (or at least most of them) scientifically.
Is it not too late for our civilisation to be saved? Should we just stop caring about the future?
We, as humans, should never stop caring about the future. In my opinion, it is our biological responsibility to develop and spread our kind across the Universe. Is it not too late for our civilisation to be saved? Yes, it is not too late, because we are smart and developed enough to continue our existence no matter what.