An Examination Of What Causes Pollution and Resource Depletion

Abstract

What is it that drives humans to pollute and deplete resources to the extent they do? Extensive pollution and resource depletion are problems unique to humans. Besides specific health and survivability issues resulting from pollution and resource depletion, populations have crashed to the point of extirpation in the past, in part due to societal stress induced by anthropogenic resource depletion. While no other population has achieved the degree of technological complexity that exists today, the underlying, fundamental needs of all societies are the same: clean resources, available in the quantities needed to allow survival. When those resources are at risk, the population is threatened. Proactively addressing this threat is a fundamental policy issue. Instead of seeking specific solutions to individual issues of pollution and resource depletion, this paper aims for a broad view, to understand the underlying forces that drive these two problems. With this understanding would come the insight to design policy to proactively mitigate or ideally stop pollution and resource depletion, and hopefully avoid societal trauma.