Today we use far fewer materials than we once did to get the same things done—a phenomenon known as “dematerialization.” But, paradoxically, this efficiency seems to drive up overall consumption. In Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization, a deeply researched statistical profile of global material use, author Vaclav Smil lays out just how much stuff we need to live modern lives.

We Make More with Less…

Material intensity continues to fall dramatically. In the U.S., the amount of resources extracted per dollar of GDP has decreased by nearly 75% over the past 90 years.

INFLATION-ADJUSTED U.S. GDP IN 2005 DOLLARS. EXCLUDES CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS.

Energy intensity, the portion of the total energy supply required to produce a material, has also dropped markedly. For example, the manufacture of 1.5 gigatons of steel would have gobbled up one-fifth of the world’s total primary energy supply (TPES) in 1900. In 2010 it used only about one-fifteenth.

A classic example of dematerialization is the computer. In just 30 years, the amount of material required to produce one PC declined 68%, and each machine housed 250,000 times more RAM. In 2011 PC makers used, in aggregate, only 54 times more material to create 38 million times more processing power than in 1981—a truly stunning instance of dematerialization.

…But We Consume More Than Ever

As efficiency rises, so does affordability, putting ever more products within reach of ever more consumers. As a result, the amount of resources extracted for every person on the planet has skyrocketed even as the global population has multiplied.

in metric tons

density = 0.85/ft³

What Does It All Add Up To?

These blocks represent one year’s worth of global materials extraction in 1900 and in 2010. Use the Sears Tower and mile scale to get a sense of the absurd massiveness of the stacks, which, Smil notes, will only grow with continued global upward mobility. He calls on human ingenuity and adaptability to address this “obviously unsustainable practice.”

in metric megatons

density = 0.85/ft³

in metric megatons

density = 0.85/ft³

in metric megatons

density = 0.85/ft³