Released 15 September 2019:
PEOPLE vs RESOURCES, restoring a world out of balance.
The world is an island and we can’t get of. While the resources are limited, nothing will be added anymore, ever, people are unlimited in their demand and desires. While people can adapt, the earth, in terms of resource capacity, can not. Now where is the balance ? That’s what the book explores: people and planet. And oh, forget about ‘ profit’ , that’s just a human concept. In the end, it’s all physics and resources.
Some comments on the Dutch publication:
I will forever look differently to the physical world and sustainability…”
and:
sharp examples, interesting insights and stimulating transversal visions.
The book is available via the publisher , via amazon and other re-sellers.
Regards, Ronald Rovers
https://eburon.nl/en/product/people-vs-resources/
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/9463012559/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_6pKEDbCPB71M8
DE: https://www.amazon.de/dp/9463012559/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_upKEDb959YZCY
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/9463012559/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_AjKEDbSN701M2
The cover text:
“It’s materials, Stupid!” could have been a better title for this book. The functioning of the earth system is based on purely natural processes, the main driver of which is huge quantities of solar energy.
Besides this fact, the earth itself is an island in space, with a fi xed and limited amount of natural resources or materials. We need these materials to harvest the solar energy and its derivatives (wind, hydropower, but also fossil fuels). While energy has a high economic value in our way of managing the earth, materials are hardly valued. Therefore, they are wasted and exhausted at an exponential rate, requiring more and more energy to yield and process, because of decreasing ore grades, among others. As a result, we experience a lot of nasty side effects, climate change to name one. Our current climate crisis
is caused by burning and exhausting an inside system resource: fossil
fuel, used to treat and exhaust a limited stock of materials, all for our
insatiable and growing consumption demands.
Now people are the ones that can adapt, where the earth resource
system is fixed. That’s the truth we have to face, and which is the
topic in this book: where is the balance between the two?
It is not impossible to establish a maintainable balance, but it requires
us to make dramatic choices, mainly regarding our demands and
desires, and to spread the burden evenly over all inhabitants of the
earth. We have to forget about Profit (the financial economy), because
it is based on creating debt, in money as well as in natural resources.
