Managing Natural Resources Video Lecture - Class 10

our planet has a way of keeping things
in balance within limits nature's cycles
maintain an environment in which life as
we know it can be sustained Natural
Resources and the raw materials they
provide are part of this balance they
are also the basis of our economy's
construction materials such as sand and
gravel account for the largest share of
osed materials consumption in weight
next come fossil energy carriers such as
oil coal and natural gas biomass for
food and feed and metals and metal ores
the more materials we consume the more
environmental pollution recalls and down
the line some materials may become
scarce globally the extraction of
material resources continues to grow
closely following economic growth but we
are seeing signs of decoupling in OECD
countries the growth of material
extraction and use is slowing down while
GDP continues to grow material
consumption peaked at slightly above 18
tons per capita in 1980 since then there
has been a slow reduction to 17 tons per
capita today that may sound like a very
slight progress but over the same period
economic output has doubled we use 45%
less material for each unit of economic
outputs a real improvement in resource
productivity but the sheer scale of that
increased output means that
environmental pressures have not fallen
in fact they have continued to intensify
in many areas leading to a doubling of
material consumption at the global level
since 1980
several countries have been showing us
how these worrying trends can be
reversed Germany Italy and Japan have
succeeded in decoupling material
consumption from economic growth in
absolute terms and diminish their
overall domestic material consumption
they have recognized that with the right
policies based on the 3 R's reduce reuse
recycle waste is not something to be
discarded but a resource that can be fed
back to the economy efforts a municipal
waste management and recycling have been
central in contributing to this success
further efforts in sustainable waste and
materials management are needed from all
governments can encourage resource
productivity through fees for the use of
resources charges for environmental
damage or by supporting longer product
life spans through the increase of legal
minimum warranty periods in 2010
increasing the lifespan of mobile
devices by 50% would have avoided the
generation of 50 million end-of-life
mobile devices in the US alone reducing
waste by one-third with appropriate
incentives the private sector can
identify new business models linked to
improved resource efficiency of
production processes and realize that
less material can mean more value the
car sharing rental model is a good
example consumers need to be more aware
of the role that every one of us can
play and contribute through better
product choices and behavior the OECD is
actively supporting its member countries
in these efforts
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