Global Resource Depletion: A Developing Focus in the Policy Arena - Term Paper Example

Discuss the proposition that global shortages of essential raw materials and energy supplies will displace environmental risk as a driver of government policy Global Resource Depletion: A Developing Focus in the Policy Arena This essay intends to discuss the statement that the global shortages of raw materials and energy supplies will displace environmental risks as a driver of government policy. However, the discussion will look into the government policy of the developing countries. The essay will begin by explaining the implications of global shortages of essential raw materials and energy supplies. It will also explain the various environmental risks and the impacts that deal with government policies, especially for the developing nations. The essay will also weigh the impacts of global shortages of essential raw materials and energy supplies against those of environmental risks, in order to accept the proposition as true or false. Global shortages of essential raw materials Raw materials are primarily the substance used in the industrial production of a good. They include industrial minerals, agricultural raw materials, construction minerals, natural rubber; wood and metallic minerals. The human population on the earth has for years lived beyond their means. The amount of resources being consumed far outweighs what the earth can produce. Worse still, the trend is escalating, with both the developed and developing economies wetting their appetites for more raw materials, leaving a very devastating future projection. There is imminent depletion of majority of essential raw materials within the century, with increased scarcity being the order of the day. Some of the aspects of human life that drives the need for more raw materials include technology, economic growth and demography (Gonzales, 2008). Metal production has witnessed exponential growth for a long time. However, the depletion of these resources has made it much more expensive to maintain production. The amount of energy and capital required to sustain production is ever increasing. Production of these minerals (raw materials) will fall, not because the mineral ores will have been depleted completely, but because the cost of production will outweigh the returns (Diederen, 2010). The global depletion of raw materials has not been seen as one that holds potential consequences to the world economy. This is mainly because of the interrelationship between energy scarcity and raw materials depletion. Majority of raw materials require huge amounts of energy for extraction and transportation. However, since oil has been available, the energy required to extract raw materials has made the production cheaper, making it harder to visualize the depletion of these resources. Nevertheless, as the cost of oil increases, the cost of obtaining raw materials will become more expensive. The cost of various minerals will go higher, while others will become depleted. Global shortage of energy supply Oil and other fossil fuels are the most important sources of energy, serving over forty percent of energy needs world wide. Fossil fuels provide the world’s economy with lubricants, fuel, paint, plastics, and asphalt, just to name a few. Globally, the energy crisis is already in play. Since the year 2003, the energy sector has been characterized by the sharp rise in demands for more energy, the oil prices have steadily increased, while the production is declining in major oil producing regions. Consequently this has resulted into numerous controversial debates about the oil peak (Goodchild, 2010). The demand for energy grows stronger everyday as developed countries expand technological developments. Furthermore, countries like China and India have increased the need for energy to feed their growing economies. The need for more energy is evident in both developed and developing nations (Schlesing, 2012). Developing nations are characterized by overpopulation which fosters the need for more energy. Since the world economy is heavily dependent on fossil fuels, especially oil, scholars believe that “peak oil” is near future reality. Peak oil is the date when the annual production of oil in the world will hit the maximum, followed by a decline. It remains unclear as to whether this has happened, or is yet to happen because it is difficult to obtain accurate data especially from the oil producing nations. As the world economies grow, the production of energy must also grow to meet the increasing needs. However, overpopulation and extensive utilization of the earth’s resources has led to the flattening of energy production. This is such that, the exponential growth of the world economy is not matched by growth in energy production, but rather the flattening and seemingly decline. Similarly, natural gas and coal are also being depleted. Though it is estimated that coal will be available long after oil and natural gas are gone, it is not a reliable form of energy because it is an environmental pollutant. Environmental risk as a driver of government policy Global environmental risks include climate change, ozone depletion, acid precipitation, rising temperatures, changing patterns of rainfall and rising sea levels. The problem of environmental change was not a major concern in developing countries, until the early 1980 when concern for environment hit the international stage. This was followed by several international negotiations and treaties on environmental changes that developed countries joined and signed, for example, the Kyoto protocol of 1997 (Bohm, 2001). Developing nations understand the need to formulate environmental policies to help slow down climate change because they will be the most affected. Impacts of climate change will have severe effects on developing nations as compared to the developed nations that are the supreme emitters of the green house gases. Majority of poor or developing nations largely depend on agriculture for their lifeline. Since agriculture is most vulnerable to climatic changes, these nations will suffer acute food shortages, through droughts, famine, and flooding. In addition, unlike the developed countries of the North, majority of developing nations do not have resources to cushion them from the effects of climate change. For instance, their natural resources, such as forests, are getting depleted when trees are cut down and used as fuel (Eccleston, 2010). Although the amount of green house emissions by developing nations, especially Africa, is still minimal (per capita emission equals about a sixth of the industrial nations’ emissions), studies show that developing nations are successfully reducing green house gasses emission in their own countries. However, these efforts have not been inspired by the global climate mitigation efforts. The main drivers included; poverty alleviation, economic development, local energy protection and energy security. Chandler et al. (2002) studied six developing countries that included China, South Africa, Brazil, India, Turkey and Mexico. Findings from this report show that, the six countries have reduced their green house gas emissions by three million tons a year for the past three decades. This demonstrates that environmental risks and climatic change themes that fill the global arena, calling for global policies to fight climate change, are not the best way to influence government policies in the developing countries. In fact, so long as these policies hold the same partisan views that only seek to benefit the developed world, their policies will never inspire passion for climate change. Furthermore, developing nations are quietly undertaking mitigation efforts to reduce green house emissions. This is, however, ongoing despite the perception that the developing countries are incapable of undertaking proper environmental efforts without the intervention of the developed countries. Further mitigation efforts are possible if resources are channelled solely for that purpose. Nevertheless, scarcity of resources is an obstacle to the process. Notably, the application of these policies to reduce green house gas emissions did not affect the nations’ productivity. These countries still managed to meet their development goals. Explanation of the proposition The proposition that global shortages of essential raw materials and energy supplies will displace environmental risk as a driver for government policy holds a few implications. Firstly, global environmental policies have been the main drivers of government policies in developing countries. These environmental policies are however have mostly been external documents providing guidelines and projection on the fight to reverse or stop environmental change. Nevertheless, since the emergence of environmental risk factors resulting from climate change, majority of poor and developing nations have adopted these policies in their countries mostly to attract aid and funding from the developed nations. Despite the horrible consequences of climate change especially on developing nations, they cannot continue to adopt unfair policies on environment from the developed nations are not willing to go through with those same suggestions. For example the United States is one of the leading nations in releasing green house gases, did not sign the Kyoto protocol because the developing nations did not. While the developed nations continue to pollute the world and speed up carbon dioxide emission, the consequences will be felt by the poor nations. Evidently, poor nations do not have a fair ground on the fight against climate change they loose either way. Consequently, the future of government policy in the developing countries lies in a new and urgent phenomenon that threatens both the rich and poor nations. Studies show that the world is facing imminent shortages of raw materials and energy supplies of a grand scale. As such the focus must soon turn to ways of mitigating this shortage. The world economy being heavily dependent on oil and other fossil fuels is in danger as these resources are getting depleted. The available oil reserves can not cope with the ever expanding lifestyle of the developed countries and the overpopulation in the developing nations. It is common that people will deny the fact that resources everywhere are getting depleted. The concept of climate change faced the same reaction. Though, it is a reality that must be faced by everyone because the impending consequences of depletion will literally change life as it is known unless new measures are developed to deal with it. According to OECD, (1999) these are the facts about our world economy. Globally, the economy is built and sustained by non-renewable fossil fuels. The past three decades has seen little efforts to produce alternative sources of energy that are reliable and renewable. The difference in geographical distribution of energy resources and consumption show that majority of energy is consumed by industrialized nations. Furthermore, developing nations like China and India have emerged with greater appetites for energy resources and raw materials providing competition to the developed nations. Sadly as the need for more energy increases, less growth in the production of energy especially oil is being experienced. This means that soon the demand will overtake supply and the era of cheap oil will be gone forever (Schesling, 2012). Why global shortages of essential raw materials and energy supplies will displace environmental risk as a driver of government policy There is a rush by the developed countries to have access to cheap raw materials that is mainly found in the developing countries. However while they create initiatives to access these raw materials cheaply they have denied developing countries access to liberalised trade. According to Windfuhr, developed countries continue to prevent developing nations from exporting agricultural produce on large scale. The have successfully managed this by imposing tariffs and quotas in addition to blocking exportation of processed products from the developing nations (2002). As a result majority of poor nations are depend on raw materials as their major export earnings. While others depend on agriculture as the major export up to ninety percent. All countries in the Sub Saharan Africa alone, 26.8% of all exports are agricultural products. According to OECD, seventy five percent of the entire exports of the developing nations with over 64 percent going to industrialized nations. Since the Uruguay round the market tariffs were reduced to 40% for agricultural products and about thirty six percent for industrial products. It is interesting to note that before the Uruguay round in 1994 the quotas imposed by industrialized nations on agricultural products made it impossible for developing nations to export (1999). Tariff escalation is the instrument by which tariffs are raised in accordance to the processing stages mainly to curtail processing industries in the developing countries. For instant, raw cocoa is charged 0% within EU. It is charged nine percent at first processing stage and is levied twenty one percent at its second processing. These kinds of tariffs have kept the most developed nations as the biggest exporters of agricultural products at the expense of developing nations. As the scramble for raw materials by the developed nations continue, the developing nations who are increasing their need for raw materials to cater for their growth have adopted policies aimed at protecting them and their raw materials. Such moves prompted the EU to form a raw materials initiative in 2008. This initiative dubbed “The raw materials Initiative-Meeting Our Critical Needs for Growth and Jobs in Europe” was initiated to respond to the increasing difficulty in obtaining raw materials. The US, on the other hand, practised a stock piling strategy in purchasing raw materials required for war production. Their strategy lasted until the end of Cold War. China, on the other hand, has resolute to firmly hold the cheap raw materials available domestically and internationally. Domestic strategy includes expansion in domestic exploitation and production and limiting of certain crucial raw materials. Furthermore, it has taken measures to block foreign investment in some of its minerals. On the other hand, China has marshalled state owned enterprises and private companies and encouraged them to acquire raw materials in the international market. The Chinese corporations are known to sponsor infrastructure in the service and finance sectors (Ramdoo, 2010). Even though reports about resource disintegration have been quite anecdotal before, economic common sense and existing patterns show that, as rivalry for limited raw materials heightens, prices will skyrocket. Before, technology has contributed to the mitigation of several of these strains by formulating new strategies and by more extensively setting out available technological strategies. Nevertheless, the possibilities of rising prices, greater demand, and declining reserves are already encouraging governments to push for greater control over important raw materials (Diederen 2010). The competition is currently on not only for gas and oil, but for lumber, rare earths, metals and even biodegradable junks. For a lot of developing economies gifted with essential, highly demanded resources, this creates the possibility to exploit the potentials of globalization and recover from poverty (Nilsson & Eckerberg 2007). Earlier studies show that global and local economies have not been especially remarkable at facilitating the sharing of resources to the poor; the task for governments at present is to discover ways to accomplish just that. Although technology and market processes could perhaps help manage growing rivalry over important raw materials, they provide no solutions for the possible collapse of the environment. This is a serious hazard to the maintenance of globalization pathways and the survival of humanity. A large number of vital ecosystem benefits, such as climate constancy and soil productiveness, are ignored or underrated and, as a result, as these environmental benefits are endangered, market indications, which would supposedly stimulate technological growth of other reserves, will be absent (Deke 2007). More significantly, people do not possess the technological capability to generate alternatives for ecological benefits at the price or at the quantity that would be required. Moreover, environmental destruction could affect output or efficiency through adverse impacts on health (Bohm 2001). As mentioned by Lee and colleagues (2000), the international community, for instance, discovered that millions of people die annually in the region of Asia-Pacific because of environmental crises like inadequate sanitation, low-quality water, and air contamination. Global exhaustion resources refer to the small amounts resources that are within our reach. It is the achievable amount of quantity within the required quality per year. Global depletion or resources means the demand exceeds the supply of goods like energy, raw materials, food and water. Global shortage of essential raw materials and energy supplies is an urgent matter base on the economic deplumation that would grip the whole world. According to Heinberg, after the peak oil maintaining the same level of production will become more expensive and the cost of energy will soar (2005). The world has been accustomed to economic growth with few years of economic slow down such as the great depression and the recent economic downturn. However, after the depletion of energy the lower energy economy will begin. This economy will be characterised by low productivity leading to the highest unemployment rates. The decrease in demand for services and goods will probably create a financial calamity. There will be bank failures, foreclosures and massive bankruptcies. The poor nations who are energy dependent will feel the pain the most. Developed countries are likely to use military measures to seize resources from the developing nations if diplomatic options fail. Everything will become very expensive due to the high cost of production. The will not be enough food to support the over six billion people on earth. Heiberg believe that the population that will be sustainable after oil and gas run out will be about 2 billion people (2002). The population reduction will occur probably through famines, plagues, and wars. Currently, the health system in the world is already under pressure to care for the millions suffering various diseases. Most hospitals are underfunded and only manage to provide substandard medical services. However, many diseases can be treated cheaply for instance malaria, tuberculosis that mainly affects people in the sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, new disease continues to arise for instance West Nile Virus, Hantavirus and AIDS continue to affect millions of people especially in Africa. Modern medicine is increasingly becoming more energy demanding. A hospital utilizes more energy than majority of buildings while more energy is required in medical researches. The post cheap energy economy will ensure only rich people access healthcare facilities while developed countries will struggle to develop new drugs and vaccines. The consequences of post peak oil will affect all aspects of life on earth and predictions are very grim. Conclusion Closer analysis of the way the world economy continues to expand even as population explosion is experienced in the developing countries, support the proposition that global resource depletion must soon replace environmental risks as a driver for government policies in the developing nations. The essay has attempted to explain this proposition by giving an in-depth meaning of global shortage of raw materials and energy supply. Majority of raw materials is found in the developing nations, especially the sub Saharan Africa. It was found that industrialized nations continue to make efforts to ensure attainment of cheaper raw materials from least developed countries, while imposing tariffs and quotas to ensure that these countries are fully dependent on export of raw materials. Despite the assertion by the proposition that environmental risk has been a driver of government policy in developing countries, there is evidence that major efforts by developing nations to reduce green house gasses are not inspired by these policies. To the contrary, they are driven by economic policies, energy security and local environmental preservation. Global depletion of resources is a reality that every country must face. Both the resource poor and the resource rich nations must realize that the natural reserves can no longer sustain the appetite for economic growth being witnessed and the population explosion that is happening on the face of the earth. There is need for development of better renewable energy to meet all the current economy’s needs, otherwise, the imminent peak oil will fling the world to the worst economic meltdown ever before experienced. The world’s economy must hurriedly disengage from its dependence on fossil fuels because of the untold consequences that this will bring after the depletion of the oil reserves and raw materials. The interconnection between the need to embrace alternative methods of energy go hand in hand with the reduction of green gas emissions. For instance, the energy used in the extraction of oil, other fossil fuels and the raw minerals like rare earths produce huge amounts of green house gas. Therefore, the step to reduce dependency on these energy sources also serves the purpose of environmental mitigation. References Bohm, G., 2001. Environmental Risks: Perception, Evaluation and Management. Oxford: Emerald Group Publishing. Chandler et al, 2002. Policy+ Climate change mitigation in Developing countries Brazil, China, India, Mexico and Turkey. [Online] Available at http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/ECS/IEW2003/Papers/Shukla_dev_mitigation.pdf [Accessed 1st July, 2012] Deke, O., 2007. Environmental Policy Instruments for Conserving Global Biodiversity. New York: Springer. Diederen, A., 2010. Global Resource depletion, managed austerity and the elements of hope. Budapest, Istanbul: Eburon Uitgeverij B.V. Digby, B., 2001. Global Challenges. Oxford: Heinemann. Eccleston, C. & March, F., 2010. Global Environmental Policy: Concepts, Principles, and Practice. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. González, R., 2008. Running Out: How Global Shortages Change the Economic Paradigm: a Statistical Yearbook. New York, NY: Algora Publishing, 2008. Goodchild, P., 2010. Depletion of Key resources: Facts at your fingertips. [Online] Available at http://www.culturechange.org/cms/content/view/597/1/ [Accessed 1st July, 2012] Heinberg, R., 2005. The Partys Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies. East Sussex, UK: CLAIRVIEW BOOKS. Lee, K, McNeill, D & Holland, A., 2000. Global Sustainable Development in the Twenty-First Century. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. Nilsson, M. & Eckerberg, K., 2007. Environmental Policy Integration in Practice: Shaping Institutions for Learning. UK: Earthscan. OECD, 1999. Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development. Energy the Next Fifty Years. Guateng, South Africa: OECD Publishing. Ramdoo, I., 2010. Implications of the EU Raw Materials Initiative on ACP Countries: Status of the mining Sector in trade Negotiations. [Online] Available at http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HeDSKOooObsJ:www.ecdpm.org/Web_ECDPM/Web/Content/Download.nsf/0/42CE0C6334649F2AC12577FB0044D659/$FILE/Implications%2520of%2520the%2520Raw%2520Materials%2520Initiative%2520EN.pdf+&hl=en&gl=ke [Accessed 1st July, 2012] Schlesing, C., 2012. China ́s Rising Oil Consumption and Its Impact on the Global Oil market Munich, German: GRIN Verlag. Read More