More Than the Sum of Its Parts: Patterns in Global Material Flows

The basic characteristics of the size and composition of material flows depend on the respective stage of countries’ metabolic transition from an agrarian to an industrial society. On a global level, resource use grew between 1950 and 2010 by a factor of 3.7 to 71 Gt (gigatons) per year. Moreover, the spectrum of resources used by industrializing societies broadened to include significant amounts of metals, nonmetallic minerals and fossil energy carriers in addition to biomass resources. However, there are large differences in material flow patterns within groups of countries with similar levels of industrialization and economic development. Of the multitude of possible approaches to interpreting and understanding differences in country-wide patterns of resource extraction and use, in this chapter, we will focus on the impacts of population, resource endowment, trade and economic wealth. The world’s poorest and least developed countries typically have a very low metabolic rate, and biomass dominates their domestic material consumption (DMC). The richer a country is and the more industrialized it becomes, the higher its per capita DMC and the higher its share of mineral materials. This is particularly the case for fossil energy carriers, of which significant shares are traded internationally. Linking these drivers to patterns of material use is a worthwhile effort in understanding current developments of resource use and, hence, future directions toward sustainability.