why is the demand for the earth's natural resources increasing?

Question

i am so stuck with this question and i need to do an essay.. please help.. juz wanna get an idea.. thanks..

Answer 1

First of all, the population is increasing. Even if we lived as stone age hunter-gatherers, we would be needing more animals and plants to feed the growing number of people.

But we are also a consumerist society. Have you ever read about common people who lived even a few hundred years ago? It was common for people to have one outfit for weekdays and one for "Sunday go-to-meeting." People didn't own televisions or cars or computers or hundreds of books or the other things with which we clutter our lives.

Even fifty years ago a family would own one car and a radio and MAYBE a tv. Most people in the US who lived in cities lived in apartments.

Now more and more people want more and more things, and these things are made of stuff. And not wood which is just chopped and cut, but plastics which are mixed in vats at chemical plants and wires which must be drawn. So we have to make the things to make the things we want.

And all of these require energy. We need electricity and heat and gas for our cars. And manufacturing processes require water. And all of this adds up to an increased demand for the Earth's natural resources.

Answer 2

The population is increasing. Also the economies of many of the world's countries are improving, lifting up the standard of living. So instead of going to sleep on a straw mat at dusk, people are staying up late sitting on a chair, reading books/watching TV, having an electric light on, sleeping in a metal or wooden framed bed, buying more than a days worth of food (and going to the store in a car instead of on a bike) at a time and keeping the unused part in a refrigerator, etc. Also these products take natural resources to make, distribute, and sell.

Answer 3

The obvious answer is because there's more people. The less obvious answer is because as the standards of living go up, people become more wasteful, more greedy, and demand more resources per person.

Answer 4

because the population is always increasing, as well as our 'right' and our 'need' to have power, electric, cars and stuff.