Weekend Edition: Global Resource Consumption to Triple by 2050 |

Last week the UN released a warning regarding our global resource consumption. With the world population hitting 9 billion by 2050 and more developing nations prosper the report warned of “the prospect of much higher resource consumption levels is far beyond what is likely sustainable.”

Many investors tout the long term bull market in commodities, how could you go wrong with a growing population and an emerging middle class in Asia and South America? Currently, people in rich nations consume an average of 16 tons of minerals, ores, and fossil fuel. That is 4 times the average consumption of a person living in India. The world population is adding millions of middle class consumers every year in rapidly growing emerging markets; here’s where the demand is coming from!

Let’s not deny that this is the ultimate buy and hold case for the next 50 years. On the other hand, we are overlooking the cost this involves when it comes to our environment. Many resources such as gold, oil and copper have become harder to extract and require more water and energy to produce.

At this rate of consumption, I don’t want to imagine the environmental cost we will all have paid by 2050. I just hope that in the meantime we can learn to do more with fewer resources and decouple our economic growth from resource consumption by adopting a sustainable model.

Until then, guess where I’ll be investing my money?

Economic roundup:

US Recovery Stuck in Low Gear

Third World Drives Global Growth

Foreign Buyers Getting Firesale Prices on US Housing

Central Banks Snap Up Gold in First Quarter

Most Common Jobs Among Lowest Paid

Weekly blog roundup:

Why I Support Ron Paul for President 2012 @Invest it Wisely

Dividend Stock Battle: AT&T Vs Verizon @Dividend Guy Blog

Is Passive Income Just An Illusion? @Intelligent Speculator

Obscure Senators Intrude on your 401K @101 Centavos