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Main Content
Sorry, All Gone!
Developing countries may never reach the level of development of developed countries as the natural resources required to sustain first world style consumption are used up rapidly
The term developing country is a misnomer on several levels, one of which being the area of technological advancement. The ‘ing’ in developing is there to suggest that developing countries are on a progressive path that ends at ‘developed’. One astute and popular criticism of this theory is that there are or should be numerous paths and types of development; for the purposes of this article, though, we will assume that developing countries do and should aspire to western-style development.
Realistically, this is no longer a possibility. For one, rich countries tend to be successful in keeping the riches for themselves regardless of their rhetoric. Furthermore, the sheer scale of exploration relative to the limited resources available clearly demonstrates that even if developing countries do develop both the technological know-how and the funds necessary to produce their own high tech products, there simply won’t be enough resources left in the world to facilitate widespread technology product ownership.
There are not enough resources on earth to service western style consumption for a growing and industrialising population. The European Environmental Agency says that global population is set to grow by 50 % in the next fifty years and if consumption levels in developing countries reach those in industrialised countries, world consumption of resources would increase by a factor ranging from two to five.
The EU projects that energy consumption in developing countries will overtake that of the industrialised world shortly after 2010 and account for two thirds of the world total in 2050. While the amount of natural resources needed to sustain growth has lessened in advanced countries, developing countries in the early stages of industrialisation need much more for a similar level of growth. The early years of industrialisation require heavy resource use, petering out as economies move to more service-based activity.
Both a cultural and legislative shift is needed to re-balance the global opportunities for accessing the materials necessary for the production and running of technological products. From a cultural standpoint, consumption needs to be disincentivised. Variety and novelty tend to be valued over durability and quality. This is unsustainable.
Total energy consumption in the EU has been rising since the mid-1990s, and this trend is projected to continue. However, there are significant differences between Western and Eastern Europe with resource and energy productivity several times higher in the former. The EU should continue to promote energy efficiency and reduced consumption across its member states.
One form of inefficiency is energy wastage, which the EU is addressing through setting targets and slowly working towards them. But that’s just half of the problem. The other key issue that needs to be tackled is the machines themselves- computers, telephones etc. that are too frequently disposed of in favour of the latest model. Legislation should be put in place to incentivise technology companies to build products to last longer and with replaceable components, so that consumers can upgrade their models by changing one part instead of the whole machine.
A major driver of the over-use of resources is the lack of application of the polluter pays philosophy to integrate the cost to the earth in the cost of the product. As the European Environment Agency says, “the costs to society of environmental and resource degradation are not fully reflected in the prices of goods and services”.
At the moment, eco- brands tend to be more expensive than other options available to consumers. If the opposite were the case as a result of taxes and regulations making the production of environmentally harmful products costly, it would be easier for the consumer to choose environmentally friendly products. The market system alone is clearly not generating optimal technology product production for society; it is time for the EU to step in and apply strict legislation to balance resource use so that the price of goods reflects their true cost.