Production and Consumption

In the past several hundred years we, as humans have increased our knowledge and bettered our technology to deplete our planet of its enriched resources. A natural resource is something such as a forest, a mineral deposit, or freshwater that is found in nature and that is useful to us. There are different types of natural resources. A non renewable natural resources and renewable natural resources. A non renewable natural resource is something as mineral ore or petroleum. It's enriched agricultural soils, it's fossil fuels, the forests. A renewable natural resource is something like water, wood, or even solar energy it can be replaced with new growth. A non renewable resource are not altered by their use, mostly metals that can often be recovered and used extended by recycling. It cannot be replaced once it has been extracted or used. Resources that are dependent on regrowth can sometimes be depleted or used up beyond the point of renewability, for example when the rainforests are cut for its lumber then using the land for agriculture production. If we fail to bring population growth and overconsumption under control, then we will inhabit a planet where life becomes increasingly untenable. (Ehrlich, P.R. and A.H. Ehrlich)

The IPAT equation expresses the idea that the environmental impact (I) of a given population will be determined by the interactions of the size of that population (P), the average affluence or consumption rate of individuals in that population (A), and the kinds of technologies that population makes use of (T). In recent decades most ecologists and environmental scientists have fixated on the P factor, population, as human numbers have grown from less than two billion in 1900 to almost seven billion by 2010. However, with population growth rates beginning to slow and global population projected to peak at nine or ten billion later this century, more attention is being paid to the A and T factors - how much we consume and what technologies we use to enable that consumption. (Turk, Bensel 2011) pg 2.3

The average American consumes about fifty-three times more goods and services than someone from China. The United States contains five percent of the world's population but accounts for 22 percent of fossil fuel consumption, 24 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, and 33 percent of paper and plastic use. A child born in the United States will create thirteen times as much ecological damage over the course of his or her lifetime than a child born in Brazil.

Americans use 27 percent of the wood commercially harvested worldwide. In the United States paper products make up roughly 39 percent of the municipal solid waste stream. Fourteen million trees are used annually to make mail order catalogs. Eleven percent of total lumber cut in the United States-including two-fifths of hardwoods cut-goes into shipping crates and pallets, most of which are discarded after one use. At