One unsustainable part of the industrial economy is the mining and processing of materials and fuels which creates also large flows of ‘waste’ and burdens environmental sinks. Upstream, huge amounts of solid waste are generated in mining and processing processes. One-fifth (2%) of global energy- and process-related CO2 emissions arise from the production and processing [...]
The aspiration of Sustainable Development (SD) is associated with well-being for life on Earth and in the long term (de Vries 2023). It is often narrowed down to human happiness, in which the long term is only involved inasfar as people’s well-being is influenced by expectations and emotions about the longer term prospects for themselves, [...]
Needs is a broad category. It overlaps with wants and desires. It covers a broad array of items, from basic needs for food and shelter to spiritual aspirations. How needs are perceived and actualized is a key aspect of the quest for sustainable development. The goal of sustainable development is a quest for developing and [...]
Models of oil and gas exploitation An important issue in sustainable development discourses is the depletion of finite resources of fossil fuels and minerals. The concepts of supply cost curves and reserve-production ratios (RPR) have been introduced in resource economics, in combination with learning-by-doing (see Appendix 8A.1 en Box 17.2 in Sustainability Science book and [...]