A world without scarcity?

Abstract

What should be very apparent at this point is that the availability—or perhaps more accurately the accessibility—of resources is a topic that attracts the attention of a wide range of professionals, scholars and activists. In the resulting discourse, global resource scarcity is often regarded as a catalyst for conflict; yet, paradoxically, such scarcity also underlies some of the most important international collaborations. While some natural resources are irrefutably essential for life and human survival, others are more important for livelihoods and economic prosperity. Some resources derive their significance and value from how difficult they are to ‘capture’ and control, while ‘market forces’ determine the worth of others. The fact that natural resources underlie existing conceptions of economic security and achievement makes the capacity to control their access and exploitation highly desirable.