A: Why is everyone talking about sustainability?

Climate change, environmental issues such as wildlife and biodiversity loss, and social inequality are all now regular topics of conversation. Different groups are now starting to share their concerns - everyone from school children worried for their future to farmers concerned for their livelihoods to financial markets looking to mitigate risks.

More and more people everyday are talking about sustainability. So, without getting too overwhelmed, let’s review some of the data and background to this complex subject.

Infinite growth on a planet with finite resources is unsustainable. We are living beyond our means.

Paul Gilding, Australian Environmentalist

Exponential growth in population

The earth has entered a new age (often called the Anthropocene) in which humans have become the dominant influence on our environment and climate.

Since the mid-20th century, the world has experienced unprecedented population growth (increasing from just 2.7 billion in 1955 to nearly 8 billion in 2023). Add this to advances in industry, infrastructure and technology and you get not only unprecedented consumption but increased depletion of many of our natural resources.

This rapid growth is known as The Great Acceleration.

Overconsumption

As consumers we are used to getting what we want, when we want it - in a way that would be very alien to past generations.

Here are just a few stats to highlight the impact we are having on our natural resources.

Humanity uses the equivalent of 1.7 planets to provide the resources necessary to provide goods and absorb waste. (Global Footprint Network, 2018)
We have created over 170,000 synthetic substances, including plastic, concrete, steel, ceramics and artificial chemicals (in comparison, there are just 5,000 natural minerals)
Every year the average global household throws away 74kg of food. (Forbes, Quested & O’Connor, 2021)
Every second a truck load of disused clothing is burnt or sent to landfill somewhere in the world. (Ellen MacArthur Foundation)

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There are now 1.4 billion motor vehicles, 2 billion personal computers and more mobile phones than people on earth. (How To Save Our Planet, Mark Maslin)
We extract over 80 million tons of seafood from our oceans every year and have reduced 30% of fish stocks to critical levels. We cut down 15 billion trees a year. The top driver of deforestation is beef production. 70% of the mass of birds on the planet are domesticated (mainly chickens - we eat 50 billion each year). 96% of the mass of all animals on earth is of those we raise to eat. (A Life On Our Planet, David Attenborough)
90% of plastic, worth $80-120 billion per year, is only used once before being discarded. Plastic bottles remain in the environment for as long as 450 years before they completely biodegrade. (World Economic Forum, 2016)
We have lost 69% of the world’s wildlife populations in the last 50 years. (Almond et al, 2022)

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There are now 2 billion more computers and phones than people

Financial inequality

Has everybody on the planet benefited from The Great Acceleration? Not necessarily and as a result it has put tremendous pressures on our social foundations.

The richest 1% earned $26 trillion in new wealth since 2020, nearly twice as much as the other 99% of the world’s population. (Oxfam 2023)
The richest 20% of the population consume around 75% of global resources, with the poorest 20% consuming just 1.5%. (Jupiter, 2016)
The Global North contains only a quarter of the world population but houses 80% of the world’s wealth, so the level of impact per capita is exponentially higher than in the south. It consistently harvests the profits from the natural resources in the Global South. (Kowalski, 2020)

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