Our Economic System and Depletion of
Natural Resources
                                                  

                                                     8-01-03
                                                    JJ Burton                


Our Economic System and the Depletion of Natural Resources

Among all nations, the U.S. is outstanding as a throwaway society.  And
this has been a growing tenet – remember when we saved and returned
for credit empty beer bottles?  Tossing an empty beer can in the garbage
or in a recycling container is a lifestyle convenience but we should recognize
that this practice is also a financial benefit to the bottle manufacturer.

Economists have come out with a new word that we laymen might well
understand and keep in mind.  The word is “externalities.”  These are the
value to society of natural resources used in the manufacture of an article
which are not included in its cost or price – “external” to conventional
manufacturing costs.  For example, the cost of lumber does not include the
cost to present and future generations of the destruction of forests.  The
cost of foods does not include the damage in pollution of groundwater and
rivers from the pesticides used by the farmers – clean water is a natural
resource. Our nature-blind economic system undervalues our non-
renewable resources and the natural services provided by our ecosystems.  
If goods reflected more of the cost of the natural resources consumed in
their production, consumers would be motivated toward lower natural
resource consumption.

Technology has been a big help in slowing up the depletion of many natural
resources, for example, replacing the use of metals by plastics and fiber
optic cables for wiring.  Such successes are a credit to capitalism.  On the
other hand, capitalist economics promotes the production of good
designed to be discarded rather than repaired.  And by means of
advertising, it promotes discarding of clothes in favor of new styles, of
cars, and computers in favor of new models.

Of the important natural resources, the supply of water will no doubt be
the one where a shortage will be the most serious The level of the
underground aquifer in our western plains which supplies much of the
needed irrigation for farm crops has been steadily going down.  In Tampa,
a mammoth desalting plant is being constructed to supply fresh water; the
prices paid for this water will no doubt reflect the cost of its construction
and operation, but not the external eventual cost of the CO2 emitted in
the production of the large amount of energy used in the desalting
process. With an expanding population and rising consumption habits
through the world, only a universal change to more modest lifestyles of
living can avoid a disastrous water shortage in some areas of the world and
be an expensive problem in the U.S.

But such a change is not compatible with capitalism’s necessity for never-
ending increases in consumption and production of material goods. The
forested area of the earth is slowly but steadily shrinking.  The estimated
loss in 1990-2000 was 2.4%.  At this rate, the present 30% of forested
area will shrink to 23% by the end of the century.  And this shrinkage is
taking place mostly in the areas where forests are most needed for flood
control, water recycling, nutrient storage, soil conservation, and climate
control. In spite of recycling and technological progress, the earth’s store
of fossil fuels and of available mineral components is being slowly depleted.  
And the expense and the use of energy to obtain many of these resources
is steadily increasing.  Oil from Texas oil wells is replaced by oil from Central
Asia, iron from Minnesota with iron from Brazil.  So here too we have
external costs – the carbon dioxide generated in getting and transporting
materials from remote locations.

Notes -
1.  In our economy, financial incentives give us the ability to harvest,
extract, process or mine our resources ever more expeditiously.  THE
ECOLOGY OF COMMERCE Paul Hawken 1993
2.  Hydrologists and farmers agree that in 20-30 years the water in the
Ogallala aquifer will be gone – what it took many thousands of years to fill
will be exhausted by mankind in a century of over pumping.  THE
ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY WORLD J.R.
McNeill 2000
3.  In the Rio Grande Valley “Severe water shortages are creating social
and political strains on both sides of the river.”  “The New York Times”
3/30/02
4.  A kilo of beef raised in our feedlot style consumes 50,000 kilos of
water.
HOME