Question

Countries with access to the planet’s resources continue to grow at a great pace, placing a tremendous strain on the availability of non-renewable resources. What responsibility do these countries have with regard to the rest of the world’s access to these resources

Answer 1

Ans. Our natural resources are in the form of discovered or extracted profitably or that part which have not yet discovered. The discovered part is called a reserve. The reserves or resources as a whole are non - renewable in nature i.e., they will be exhausted over time. Hence their preservation and conservation is very important. Many countries, mainly the developed and developing countries have greater access to the resources, hence higher exploitation rate. With the advent of technological advancements and urbanization, which was followed by population increase had their inception in the developed countries. They had exploited the natural resources to the fullest and relentlessly. However, with time, after proper awareness of their importance and conservation, they started using them judiciously. By this time, the developing countries had begun experiencing technological boons and hence started to explore resources. Not only due to technological advent, but also due to their living they depend more on the natural resources just like the underdeveloped countries. Hence more or less every type of country - whether economically strong or weak have access to natural resources.

The use of natural resources has not been judicious and the result in the scarcity of the resources and most are under vulnerable conditions. Hence their optimum use is essential. Here comes the concept of sustainability, which entails the use of natural resources judiciously such that they meet the present demands and at the same time are made available for the future generations. Another way is to shift to non conventional resources like bio-fuels. This will reduce the pressure on the fossil fuels and help clean up the environment and offset the global warming to a great extent. Then there are shifting to renewable resources like wind, thermal, solar, tidal etc. Since these require technological feasibility and huge investments, so the developed countries can bring up continuous research and modifications of the existing technologies for efficient systems and better utilization of the energy resources to meet our energy demand. The developed countries can also funds to the developing and underdeveloped countries for installation of renewable resources for future energy security and reduce pressure on natural resources.

Under the goals and strategies of environmental, economic, human rights, education, health etc., adopted by the United Nations sustainability has been emphasized. Sweden tops the list in achieving the sustainable goals by a range of about 80 % - 84 %, followed by Denmark, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and lot more. There are many countries where a major proportion of people lie below the poverty level and have no access to even clean drinking water need additional funding to help them maintain a proper standard of living, then only a country can progress and achieve sustainability.