Skip to main content

Materials Count The Case for Material Flows Analysis (2004) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:

3 Broad Context for Material and Energy Flows Information
Pages 33-38

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 33...
... This is especially true in the global economy, with manufacturing shifting to developing economies over time and expanding because of growth in global economic activity. Service economies partially decouple material consumption from revenue generation, in the sense that total material requirements per unit gross domestic product decline in countries such as the United States as the economy evolves (Figure 3.1~.
Read the entire page →
From page 34...
... Germany Japan Netherlands - - - - United States FIGURE 3.1 Overall material intensity (total material requirements per gross domestic product) index.
Read the entire page →
From page 35...
... The United States imports 100 percent of several commodities and significant proportions of other critical materials (Figure 1.2~. These patterns of material use clearly suggest that any materials accounting methodology should extend beyond national boundaries to be truly systemic and ensure the capture of important information.
Read the entire page →
From page 36...
... Recent discussions in the United States, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank, and elsewhere relate sustainability to the maintenance or improvement of stocks of various forms of capital such as built infrastructure and facilities, productive capital, natural resources, and the quality of the environment. The idea of sustainability is important in many policy, environmental, and scientific communities.
Read the entire page →
From page 37...
... Some policy makers indeed believe that the market will not operate correctly and sustainability will not be achieved until full cost accounting is achieved. TECHNOLOGY EVOLUTION As the above factors indicate, the modern world is far more complex than that of the late nineteenth century, when the United States first began gathering material flows data.
Read the entire page →
From page 38...
... Moreover, the United States is dependent on other countries for 100 percent of several commodities and significant proportions of other critical materials. One potential important use of material flows accounting, therefore, is the identification of potential substitutes or the creation of stockpiles for materials controlled by possibly hostile governments.
Read the entire page →

Key Terms

  • flows accounts
  • economic activity
  • flows information
  • energy flows
  • flows analysis

  • flows accounting
  • hostile governments
  • potential substitutes
  • possibly hostile
  • material requirements

  • gross domestic
  • multidisciplinary research
  • total material
  • critical materials
  • significant proportions

  • international political
  • political structure
  • materials controlled
  • flows data
  • energy flow

  • adding substance
  • domestic product
  • mechanisms supporting
  • obviously poses
  • elsewhere relate

  • natural cycles
  • global economy
  • recent discussions
  • human rights
  • industrial ecology


    • This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
    More information on Chapter Skim is available.