Losses and waste in the global crisis

摘要

The society and natural resources equation is challenging. We have all seen the curve illustrating an exponential increase in world population over time. Only during the last half a century, from 1950 to the turn of the current century, the number more than doubled, from two and a half to six billion. Another three billion are likely to be added to the ranks by the mid of this century, mainly in urban centers but also in areas where resource endowment is constrained and the environment vulnerable. Yet, in sheer numbers, population increase has been considerably lower than the expansion of other population related characteristics of society. For the same period, grain production tripled, energy use quadrupled and economic activity quintupled. The curve for international trade growth is even steeper.