『Abstract
Background Aims and Scope. Access to abiotic resources is
vital for modern life styles. Except for ozone depletion, no other
environmental threat has a potentially larger impact on our everyday
lives than shortage of abiotic resources. In ‘Limits to Growth’
the Club of Rome identified depletion of ores and minerals as
becoming a major problem during the first or second decades of
the twenty-first century, and the idea was widely spread. Since
then, the attitude to the problem has shifted, and many institutions,
such as the European Commission, do not consider the problem acute
and does not give it priority in their present action plans. Regardless
of when it happens, however, the social consequences of a shortage
of abiotic resources will be a major problem and the significance
and nature of the problem will depend on what the world looks
like then at the time and afterwards. This article discusses existing
LCIA methods in relation to their views on the depletion problem.
Method. Review of existing LCIA methods in relation to
depletion problem definitions.
Results and Discussion. Existing methods for characterisation
and weighting of abiotic resources appear to be based on four
types of problem definitions, although not always explicit: 1)
assuming that mining cost will be a limiting factor, 2) assuming
that collecting metals or other substances from low-grade sources
is mainly an issue of energy, 3) assuming that scarcity is a major
threat and 4) assuming that environmental impacts from mining
and processing of mineral resources are the main problem. In addition
to differences in assumptions about what will be the limiting
factor, there are different views on what time scales are of interest
and how to integrate the issue in LCA.
Conclusion. The main dividing line in views on abiotic
resources has to do with time perspective. If only caring for
the next hundred years or so, abiotic resources is a manageable
problem. In taking an historic perspective with tens of thousands
of years, abiotic resources become a major problem.
Recommendations and Outlook. Today there seems to be some
consensus on focusing on developing characterisation methods based
on future increase of impacts from using lower grade resources
with consideration of resource functionality. It is essential
that the choice of temporal focus is given enough attention.
Keywords: abiotic resources; category indicator; cost; energy;
exergy; impact category; indicator; LCIA; minerals; scarcity』
Introduction
1. Review of suggested types of indicators
1.1. Energy and mass
1.2. Relation of use to deposits
1.3. Future consequences of resource extractions
1.4. Energy consumption or entropy production
2. Different ideas of the problem with abiotic resources
2.2. The definition of abiotic resources
2.3. Temporal focus
2.4. Mining costs
2.5. Shortage of energy
2.6. Scarcity
2.7. Impacts from mining
2.8. Integration in LCA
3. Discussion
3.1. How important is the problem?
3.2. Accepting depletion
4. Conclusions and recommendations
References