ABSTRACT
The second half of the twentieth century delivered a double blow to the sustainable use of resources, sending the global ecological footprint into overshoot in 1970 (Global Footprint Network, 2012a: 4). First, there has been a nearly threefold increase in global population since 1950 (population in 1950 was around 2.5 billion, and in 2012 was 7 billion; US Census Bureau, 2012), and, second, a dramatic increase in consumerism in developed and increasingly in developing countries, substantially on the back of fossil fuel-based products and derivatives. During the twentieth century the world increased its fossil fuel use by a factor of 12, whilst increasing its extraction rate of material resources by a factor of 34 (European Commission, 2011: 2). It appears that the concept of a finite planet and resource base, with an upper limit on the rate of natural resource regeneration, is still difficult for many to comprehend, despite being as absolute as any law of physics.
