PEAKS OF THE WORLD PRODUCTION OF RAW MATERIAL RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS - HISTORICAL DISCOURSE AND PROSPECTS FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The subject of the research of the current article is the extraction of minerals and the production of the most important industrial products on a global scale. The paper provides a retrospective analysis of the dynamics of industrial production and its resource provision in direct connection with the change in the world population. Study of peaks and their correlation with the prospects for further economic development and maintaining the growth of world consumption. In the course of the work, such methods of general scientific knowledge as analysis and synthesis, as well as graphical and tabular methods of information processing were used. As a result of the study, statistical time series of extraction and production of a number of the most important minerals and industrial products were constructed, and the relationship between production and production peaks and global economic crises was revealed. Forecasts are given for the further development of the world economy based on information on the availability of the resource base to meet the growing needs of the world population and maintain the usual standard of living. In the course of the work, it was found that the decline in resource consumption in Western countries due to deindustrialization, increased production efficiency and negative demographic indicators is offset by economic growth in developing countries. Therefore, the peak of production of many types of raw materials, including per capita, has not yet been reached. In the energy sector, there is a shift in focus from hydrocarbon production to renewable and gas energy. However, there is no reason to believe that renewable sources will be able to fully meet the growing energy needs of civilization against the background of the gradual abandonment of nuclear energy and insufficient attention paid to the development of hydropower. Based on current trends, a gradual increase in the problem of access to cheap energy resources and the onset of energy starvation in the coming decades in a number of countries of the world are expected as hydrocarbon deposits are depleted.