Since year 1970, global resource use has more than tripled (System Change Lab). This has resulted in environmental and social harms ranging from biodiversity loss to human rights concerns in mining. This current system of economy which is regarded as ‘linear economy’ where materials are taken from the earth, used to make products and eventually thrown away as wastes (take-make-waste system) is gradually having wider consequences on the environment. It has been recorded that material resource extraction and processing accounts for over 55% of climate change impacts, about 40% of airborne particulate matter health impacts, 90% of water stress and 90% of land-use related biodiversity loss. If this system continues, by year 2060, the global resource use would have grown by 60% from what it was in 2020. This will likely pose serious threat to the existence of man on earth.
