Resource scarcity can be caused by natural or man-made processes. Developing nations often rely heavily on natural resources, leading to scarcity when overused. Economic problems arise due to low per-unit value of raw materials. Climate change and conflicts also contribute to resource scarcity, which is compounded by trade policies and economic inequality. International cooperation is necessary for lasting change.
A resource scarcity can be caused by a number of natural or man-made processes depending on the type of resource in question and the uses it has. The scarcity of certain natural resources in selected parts of the globe is usually attributed to geological or biological processes in nature that prevent their production or excessive use by local people over time. Limitations in the availability of economic goods can also be traced to a scarcity of resources produced by social and political conditions such as a lack of adequate jobs, education or advanced technology among the population.
Research has shown that less advanced societies are often more directly dependent on abundant natural resources than advanced ones. This is because advanced society economies have large components that require minimal natural resources to function and generate income, such as the service sector and information-based industries such as telecommunications, software development, and financial industry. Developing nations, on the other hand, often rely heavily on natural resources from mining, forestry and fishing. As the population grows, scarce resources can occur in these arenas when natural processes are slower to replace them than the local human population to harvest them.
Economic problems are related to a scarcity of resources due to the way these resources are valued globally. Raw materials harvested from nature tend to have low per-unit value relative to the products from which they are made, and this can perpetuate a cycle of stagnation in developing countries. Since many developing nations acquire over 50% of their export earnings from basic commodities, cash flow to those nations tends to be insufficient to fund education and technological growth. Such societies may experience a downward cycle of increasing scarcity, as their resource base is slowly degraded as it is overused to raise money and meet more than the needs of the local population alone.
Other factors that may contribute to resource scarcity include climate change, which affects agricultural production and fish populations, and conflicts both internally and between neighboring states over the exploitation of shared resources such as oil reserves. A 2010 analysis of resource scarcity by the Center on International Cooperation at New York University in the United States found that population growth is placing an increasing demand on resources critical to the production of economic goods. These include fresh water, arable land and widely used energy sources such as oil.
Because population growth tends to be highest in low-resource developing countries to begin with such as Pakistan and Kenya, as populations expand, deprivation increases and political systems designed to address it become increasingly unstable . Regions of the globe such as the Middle East and North Africa that are also experiencing rapid population growth are facing increasingly scarce resources such as fresh water, which needs to be shared equally across borders for both agricultural, residential and industrial use . The Middle East and North Africa saw their population increase by more than 200% from 1970 to 2001, when another 213,000,000 people were added to the previous 173,000,000.
In most natural environments, the availability of resources is balanced against the needs of local indigenous life. Human society, however, has altered this balance through international trade, making the resource base of small regions one that must supply much larger populations. When a coastal nation, for example, relies on its local fish population for export profits, it can lead to the gathering of local fisheries well beyond their natural ability to replenish. Similar conditions occur with mineral and energy deposits and forest products. Resource scarcity, therefore, is a global problem compounded by trade policies and economic inequality between nations that must be resolved through international cooperation if lasting changes occur.
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