Reduce consumption of food and natural resources for survival of mankind

July 11, 2012, 8:33 pm 

Dr. Mathu H. Liyanage

The world is facing a grave crisis today with the increase of the global population and the resultant increase in the basic needs of the people and enforced attempts to meet them by reducing natural resources. This trend has to be reversed soon before the human race takes a deadly beating.

The global population reached seven billion last year and it is predicted that, by 2050, it will reach 11 billion.

The unprecedented growth of population and the impending prosperity of countries such as China, India and Brazil will make the rise in consumption phenomenal. It is in these circumstances indeed that the Malthusian theory becomes a reality.

Growth in population means growth in consumption and a greater demand on natural resources for production, viz. fossil fuels, fresh water, ores, biomass and minerals. Intensive demand for them with limited supply will push the prices higher and the cost of living.

It is the developed countries with only about 20 per cent of the world’s population consume 85 per cent of its resources. The average person in the developed countries is said to use energy 40 times more than a person in the developing countries. If both the developed countries and developing countries use the same quantity of energy from the combustion of fossil fuels and have access to the same sources of energy, the end result will indeed be catastrophic.

It is reported that over the last 100 years that fossil fuels had grown 30 times and industrial production 50 times, indicating a glimpse of the devastation that may be caused to natural resources.

It is advocated in many quarters that restrictions on population growth and sustainable consumption of natural resources, which march on arm-in-arm, is the key to this world crisis.

It may perhaps be possible for developing countries to feed, provide water, shelter and energy for the increasing population if developed countries reduce their own consumption of natural resources, lowering the price of products and reducing the need to import mineral resources from developing countries.

Sustainable development is simply the use of resources to meet the needs of the people whilst preserving the environment. Plant trees when trees are cut down for building is a very simple example but it is not so in many as, for instance, the supply of fossil fuels, land and minerals is limited, finite and constant and cannot be replaced for ages. The obvious answer is to cut down production by developed countries without losing prosperity by adopting suitable economic mechanisms.

These ultimately boil down to sustainable development - the right to improvement and advancement of economic, social, cultural and political conditions. Improvement implies a change that ensures a life of dignity, and changes should invariably include action to eradicate and alleviate widespread poverty, unemployment and social inequality now prevalent in the society. Social development will hopefully ensure and help enhancing the individual person’s well-being by integrating socioeconomic development, and environmental conservation and protection. Summing up, it is meeting the basic needs of the human being by providing easy access to food, housing, health services, education and fair distribution of income.

United Nations Rio+20 Sustainable Development Summit in Brazil attended by more than 100 world leaders and about 45,300 participants has ended minus any tangible results to be complacent about. It appears that the leaders have agreed in vague terms to negotiate a set of sustainable development goals by 2015 on issues such as food, land, water, food, waste and poverty but have not been able to agree on what those goals should be.