Factors Increasing Demand
- The demand for resources is increasing rapidly
- Demand is outstripping supply in many areas of the world for food, water, and energy
- There are a number of reasons for this:
- Population growth
- Economic development
- Lack of supply
Population growth
- In 2022 the world's population increased to over 8 billion people
World population total and growth rate
Graph of world population total and growth rate
- The world population is predicted to reach 9.2 billion by 2040
- This is a rapid increase since the early 1900s when the population was below 2 billion people
- The more people there are, the higher the demands for food, energy, and water
Economic development
- As countries develop, the people have increased incomes
- This increases the demand for consumer goods, energy and water
- Increased demand for products also leads to more industry to produce the goods, both factories and agriculture.
- These industries also require energy and water, further increasing the demand
Lack of supply
- Many natural resources are finite - they are being used faster than they can be replenished:
- Fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas)
- Freshwater
- Minerals such as copper, iron,
- Even for those resources which are not finite it may be difficult to meet the demand
- There is a decreasing amount of land available for food growth due to expanding settlements, the use of land for growing biofuels and desertification