Trapped by Industrialism: Civilization's Daily Resource Demands
Turning off the machine would kill billions
For some, it is a common, and perhaps comforting, illusion of modern life that our individual consumption is relatively minor.
They meticulously separate their recycling, perhaps opt for energy-efficient appliances, and feel a sense of responsible stewardship.
These individual actions obscure a more profound reality: the sheer scale of resources required to sustain a global population exceeding eight billion individuals is, by its very nature, unfathomable to the individual consumer.
Even if one were to live a life of extreme frugality, the underlying infrastructure that provides basic necessities – food, clothing, shelter – operates at an unstoppable level of resource extraction.
To truly grasp this, below I provide a few examples using commonly consumed basic goods. I aim to move beyond the abstract and illustrate what it takes EVERY SINGLE DAY - to keep humanity fed and clothed.
Consider one soft drink factory, with daily consumption of, say, 50,000 kilograms of aluminum. This sounds large. However, to truly perceive the scale, imagine a fleet of fully loaded tractor-trailer trucks, each carrying several tons of aluminum ingots, arriving at the factory gates every single day. These aren't small deliveries; we're talking about a constant stream of heavy industrial transport, each journey consuming significant amounts of fuel.
The hundreds of thousands of liters of water used daily by these factories could fill multiple Olympic-sized swimming pools. This isn't just a tap running; it's a continuous draw equivalent to the needs of a small municipality.
The tens of megawatt-hours of electricity powering the soda factory could power thousands of homes for an entire day – all to produce a single type of beverage.
Globally, the total water consumption for the entire soft drink industry would be substantially larger, potentially rivaling the daily water usage of a major river system. The daily global energy consumption would also be immense, likely in the range of hundreds of thousands of megawatt-hours, comparable to the daily electricity generation capacity of a large country. The daily aluminum or PET plastic usage globally would likely amount to thousands of tons, enough to form a continuous line of filled containers stretching across continents.
Now, shift focus to a bread factory requiring 20,000 kilograms of flour daily. Imagine numerous shipping containers, each packed floor to ceiling with sacks of milled grain, being offloaded daily.
The thousands of cubic meters of natural gas powering the ovens represent a substantial and continuous burn, akin to the energy demand of a significant heating plant operating around the clock. The countless rolls of plastic film and stacks of cardboard boxes used for packaging daily could, if laid end-to-end, likely stretch for kilometers each day.
Globally, if an average commercial loaf requires approximately 0.5 kilograms of flour, the global daily flour consumption could be hundreds of thousands of tons. To perceive this, imagine a line of fully loaded freight trains, stretching for hundreds of kilometers, dedicated solely to delivering flour to bakeries worldwide each day.
The water used globally for bread production, considering dough mixing and cleaning, would likely reach hundreds of millions of liters daily, comparable to the daily water usage of a large metropolitan area.
The thermal energy consumed for baking globally could equate to the energy content of thousands of tons of oil equivalent per day. The packaging materials used daily could easily cover an area larger than a small nation.
Finally, a textile mill processing thousands of kilograms of raw cotton daily conjures images of vast bales of fiber, enough to fill multiple warehouses, constantly being fed into the machinery.
The hundreds of thousands of liters of water used for dyeing could fill a small lake in a matter of days.
Globally, if producing a single cotton t-shirt requires approximately 2,700 liters of water, then the daily water footprint for t-shirt production alone likely reaches into the tens of billions of liters globally, comparable to the daily flow of a significant waterfall like Niagara Falls.
The land required globally for cotton cultivation to support this demand is immense, estimated to be tens of millions of hectares, an area larger than many countries.
The energy consumed in the various stages of textile production, from growing and processing cotton to manufacturing and dyeing fabric, represents a significant portion of global industrial energy use, potentially equivalent to the daily energy consumption of several smaller industrialized nations combined.
The daily use of dyes and chemicals, often toxic, amounts to thousands of tons globally, posing a significant environmental challenge.
Globally, this level of production translates into staggering numbers. Each day, the world likely produces billions of aluminum cans. Our demand for clothing results in the daily manufacture of tens of millions of cotton t-shirts, a number that fluctuates with fashion and consumption cycles. And the humble loaf of bread? Worldwide, it's estimated that hundreds of millions of loaves are baked daily to feed the global population.
Beyond these examples, consider the daily global consumption of other essential resources:
Oil: The world consumes approximately 97 million barrels of oil per day, a volume that, if visualized, could fill a continuous line of supertankers stretching across the ocean. This fuels our transportation, powers industries, and is a critical feedstock for numerous materials.
Water: Global daily water consumption is estimated to be around 9 trillion liters. This includes agricultural, industrial, and domestic use, a quantity so vast it's difficult to conceptualize, yet essential for everything from growing our food to keeping us hydrated.
Cement: While perhaps less immediately apparent, the construction of our cities and infrastructure demands an enormous amount of cement. Global daily production is in the order of millions of tons, enough to build a significant number of skyscrapers every single day.
Remember - these are DAILY numbers.
Our civilization places profound demands on the planet's resources, a demand that operates largely out of sight and out of mind for the individual consumer, yet keeps you and me alive for another day.
The continuous operation of countless factories, each with its own substantial demands, creates a global resource footprint that is truly difficult to fathom. We have built a civilization predicated on a relentless, mechanized conversion of raw materials into the fabric of our daily lives.
This intricate and colossal system, while delivering unprecedented levels of convenience and access, has also ensnared us in a web of high energy dependence. The very foundations of our survival are now inextricably linked to a level of resource consumption that strains the planet's capacity.
Recognizing the sheer magnitude of this unseen leviathan, this daily, global hunger for resources, is the first crucial step towards understanding the locked-in path to collapse.
There is no stopping the machine. Because stopping the machine means halting production of basic necessities, almost immediately sending billions to their deaths.
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Thanks,
Sarah
It's remarkable how oblivious we are to how our goods arrive to our stores and homes. The sheer statistics are beyond comprehension, and this frenzy the colonial countries have enjoyed is about to end. Once oil can't be harvested with profit, the party is over, and that day approaches soon. Perhaps it will be extended by drilling in the melting Arctic as permafrost melts, releasing millions of years of stored methane and carbon. That's a fool's game that will push the planet over 3.0° Celsius global temperature rise by 2100, guaranteeing our extinction and that of creatures that don't deserve to be the recipients of our stupidity. The ultra wealthy that have driven this apocalypse will be surprised that killing the slow, balanced workings of the planet will kill them, too. They are all deluded psychopaths without an ounce of humanity among them. We are truly a mistake in evolution.
There’s more worth saying. I’m tuned into the education going on. Humanity is getting it. We were operating on the surface, unaware of how our world runs, which let it fall into crooked hands. Now we are wising up, seeing what’s all around us. It’s a new playing field, that’s step one to a future, which, even taking everything terrible into account, still is uncertain.