Consumption of Natural Resources Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

Consumption of Natural Resources - Essay Example The US tops consumption in natural gas, 2 oil, coffee, corn, zinc, lead, aluminum, rubber and many other resources. There are numerous ways in which this consumption rates can be illustrated. For example, a commodity like meat is consumed by almost all nations. However, consumption should be such that it corresponds with the overall population. China is therefore justified for being the largest overall consumer since they have the largest population. But when one examines the amount of meat consumed by individuals in each country, the US carries the day. It was found that this country exceeds the world average by three hundred percent. Southern Asian meat consumers fall below the world average by seventy five percent. African countries on the other hand fall below the world average consumption by fifty percent. Other products such as fish are consumed by populations depending on their availability. This is because fish is quite cheap if it is located near consumers. Maldives - which is a relatively poor country - has recorded high fish consumption rates. Even other rich nations such as Japan have high fish consumption rates because this has been part of their tradition ever since time immemorial. It should be noted that consumption rates normally indicate the extent of industrialization in any given country. Countries such as Taiwan, Korea and Malaysia are growing economies. Most of them are engaging in building projects since they are all trying to develop their infrastructure. Consequently, the latter three countries are the world's largest Cement consumers. Surveys found that these countries exceeded US cement consumption with a ratio of 2:1. On the other hand, industrialized nations like the UK consume about a quarter of the cement that the Asian countries mentioned above consume. 3 Water consumption largely depends upon the geographical location of a specific country. For instance Egypt gets most of its water from other countries that have large portions of fresh water from the Nile. Sudan is also faced with a similar situation. It does not have access to the River Nile and therefore gets most of its water from its neighbors. Other countries that also depend on their neighbors for water are Iraq and Syria. The latter countries depend on the Euphrates for survival. It should however be noted that water consumption mostly depends on the rate of development and the economic activities that go on in a country. For example, countries growing cash crops that require a lot of water are more likely to record high water consumption rates per person. On the other hand, countries that have poor infrastructural facilities are more likely to waste water resources and will therefore record higher levels of water consumption. Statistics comparing annually water consumption in a number of countries throughout the world found that a relatively under developed country such as Turkmenistan in the Soviet Union consumed five million liters per person as compared 1.8 million liters of water per person. France take up 0.65 million liters while the United Kingdom uses 0.2 million liters of water per person. 4 Some natural resources are taken up depending on the end products they can produce. One such resource is timber or forest resources. Finland has been recorded as the highest timber consumer because they are also the largest producers of paper. In light of this, it should be