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Some were global, but were not as severe—e.g. the 1918 influenza pandemic killed an estimated 3–6% of the world's population. [13] Most global catastrophic risks would not be so intense as to kill the majority of life on earth, but even if one did, the ecosystem and humanity would eventually recover (in contrast to existential risks).
A natural resource may exist as a separate entity such as freshwater, air, or any living organism such as a fish, or it may be transformed by extractivist industries into an economically useful form that must be processed to obtain the resource such as metal ores, rare-earth elements, petroleum, timber and most forms of energy.
The interconnectedness of economies and the proliferation of multinational corporations have led to increased competition for access to natural resources, such as minerals, fossil fuels, timber, and agricultural products, in diverse regions around the world. This heightened demand for resources has driven intensified extraction activities ...
Some scholars believe that the projected peak global population of roughly 9-10 billion people could live sustainably within the earth's ecosystems if humans worked to live sustainably within planetary boundaries. [6] [7] [8] The bulk of environmental impacts are caused by excessive consumption of industrial goods by the world's wealthiest ...
In the real world, consumption of fossil fuel resources leads to global warming and climate change. However, little change is being made in many parts of the world. If the peak oil theory proves true, more explorations of viable alternative energy sources, could be more friendly to the environment.
Overexploitation does not necessarily lead to the destruction of the resource, nor is it necessarily unsustainable. However, depleting the numbers or amount of the resource can change its quality. For example, footstool palm is a wild palm tree found in Southeast Asia. Its leaves are used for thatching and food wrapping, and overharvesting has ...
"When Nature Attacks" from Newsweek; World's worst natural disasters since 1900; Earthquake Hazards Program – USGS; EM-DAT: The International Disaster Database managed by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters; Disasters Database Report from Emergency Management Australia
[5] [6] The loss of biodiversity has been attributed in particular to human overpopulation, continued human population growth and overconsumption of natural resources by the world's wealthy. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] A 2020 report by the World Wildlife Fund found that human activity – specifically overconsumption, population growth and intensive farming ...