Newspaper – FT – Scarcity reminds us of what we take for granted

This article highlighted several facts I had no idea about. It focuses on how Covid disruption has led to shortages of basic good for rich countries. Most importantly I think, the author warns / raises concerns that we should differentiate between a temporary shortage and permanent depletion.

There is a difference, however, between bottlenecks and depletion. Most of the problems facing rich countries are temporary. Eventually, new drugs factories will come online and produce more vaccines; Texan refineries will reopen easing the components shortage; and shipping containers will find their way back to the right ports. The problem is not how to produce enough per se, but producing enough to satisfy all demand right now.

A bigger concern is that the pandemic is a test run for how our societies will respond to a changing climate and a damaged environment. Depleting the worlds natural resources creates a scarcity that time will not alleviate: once a rainforest or endangered species is gone, it is gone for good.

This could include shortages of commodities we mostly never think about. The UN is warning the world is running out of sand that is vital for construction. Urbanisation in Africa and Asia is depleting the reserves in quarries, coastlines and riverbeds faster than they can be placed. Abundant desert sand, eroded by the wind, is too small and round to use in construction.

Only water is used more in the global economy than sand. Here, too, shortages have already made themselves felt, from European trade interruptions caused by the low level of the Rhine in 2008 to this year’s drought in Taiwan, the country’s worst for decades, which forced is semiconductor factories to reduce consumption. Of all the lessons taught by the pandemic, perhaps the most important is how much we take for granted. There are plenty of other things we will me if they disappear.

Who knew? Apart from better use of finite natural resources, I think it also highlights the importance of investing in innovation, in this case to find a better, more environmentally-friendly substitute to sand for construction. In the same way that we are shifting away from petrol to electric engines for cars.