Countdown to no Resources. One of the most important pillars in…
Tags: Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Environmental Issues, Resource Depletion, Natural Resources

One of the main pillars in sustaining future lifestyles is natural resources. To plan for the future we need to assess the situation now. Currently, we are blowing through natural resources with no regard for our future.

As the population and consumption continue to increase, it is expected we will need three planets worth of resources just to support current lifestyles. Personally, this scares me, to think that we use resources this quickly is troublesome, and it is imperative that we combat resource depletion head-on.

We know that we cannot preserve all resources forever due to life cycles and environmental cycles. When we run out of oil, then there is simply no more oil until it is naturally made. Due to how long it takes for these cycles take to run their course, society’s best bet is to preserve as many resources as possible, while actively working to find alternatives resources that can do the job even better.

Fellow blogger Renegade Inc. has similar a similar point of view. In their blog entry called “Resource Depletion,” they talk about the importance of finding alternative resources that can fulfill current jobs below is a quote from them about oil.

“… there are already viable substitutes for many of its applications. They are not being fully exploited because they don’t provide the short-term returns available from the over-exploitation of scarce oil. We should be using oil only for those applications for which we haven’t yet found alternatives.” (2016).

In other words, Renegade is saying that whenever we find a sustainable alternative resource that replaces an unsustainable one, we should immediately switch to using that resource for all applicable jobs. I find these words highlight a huge complexity in resource depletion and ask an important question, who decides which resources we use for certain jobs?

Renegade dwells on this question slightly by saying…

“If renewables received half the investment that oil and nuclear have enjoyed since 1945, then a solution to the energy problem would be easily within reach. The renewables sector has a key role to play in the establishment of a new inclusive economy. By putting people to real work, we will help tackle the biggest threat to our collective future.”(2016).

Renegade believes it’s all about funding in finding alternative solutions to resource depletion. They belive this will help in creating a newer more inclusive economy then the one we have now. I agree with them but they do not take it all the way. Who provides this funding?

To me, the answer to both of these questions is the government. I have a feeling renegade knows this too they just did not want to say it. By saying we need an inclusive encomomy, they are saying the current one isn’t, and we all know that currenlty the governemnt and big corportation control the government.

The government dictates law and the economy, so it is them who decides which resources we, the common people, can use. The government also decides what our tax dollars will fund. Every year the armed forces make vast strides in military advancements but it seems we never hear of any new developments in managing production and resource depletion. I see this as a huge flaw in our system that is a huge contributor to our overuse of resources.

If society operated from Renegade’s way of thinking, the government would make it law that we had to phase out of certain resources and implement the newer and safer alternatives, but we all know the government would never do that. Let us use oil as an example. In most first-world countries oil is a staple of our daily lives, we use it to heat our homes, heat our water, power our cars, and more, but we all know of alternatives to oil that can adequately do the same job and are even renewable resources, unlike oil. So why then why do we still overuse oil? Simple, the government puts more value in the billions of dollars they make off big oil companies than they do in the future of this planet.

Using renegade’s idea of replacing resources the minute we find alternatives is crucial in sustain future resources and life on earth. The main strive of responsible production and consumption is making sure everyone on the planet has adequate access to electricity, food, water, and energy. If first-world countries switch to alternative sources once found, we can even help second and third-world countries too.

Instead of these second and third world countries exporting all their resources to first world countries they can use them for their own people in a more efficient way. We can even have first-world countries recycle their now obsolete parts to these countries to help save them money and resources and to help them grow. Eventually when these second and third world countries have adequate infrastructure and economy to support the new alternative resources then they should begin to phase out the old resource as well.

I believe Renegade’s idea of phasing out resources is an important idea to consider for combating resource depletion. It poses interesting questions about government involvement and government agenda that we as citizens of this world need to address to save our planet. The more we learn and the deeper we plunge into the topic, the more it seems we cannot trust the government to battle this problem head-on.

Renegade. (2016, April 15). Resource Depletion. Four Horsemen: The Survival Manual. medium.com/four-horsemen-the-survival-manual/resource-depletion-5b4c6f99c827