'The Age of Stupid' - Resource Wars

One of the main issues raised in the film 'The Age of Stupid' was our need for resources and the extent that we are willing to go to secure them.

Throughout our history, groups of people have always sought to control the Earth's natural resources in order to gain wealth and power. At many times trade wasn't enough and the more 'advanced' society took what they wanted by force, most notably Colonial Europeans enslaving West Africans for free labour and also mining their resources of gold and diamonds, and using their fertile soils to grow sugar cane.

Many of the world's problems stem from conflict over natural resources, and recently civil wars have ravaged resource rich areas where dictators and military regimes battle over control of their natural wealth, particularly in Africa where divisions created by Europeans still cause troubles. This has been shown in oil-rich Angola and in Sierra Leone where diamonds are mined. In these places the natural resources are a curse where instead of providing an option for the nation to gain wealth and improve the lives of their citizens they have held back the opportunity for growth and ripped the country apart.

Oil is currently the most sought after resource and it follows that the areas that produce it are among the most volatile on Earth. As a material, crude oil is vital for fuel and producing plastics and as it is a finite resource countries will risk war to gain control of the last few drops to generate wealth and power which has led to the Gulf Wars in the Middle East.

War over oil has a large impact on the design industry, mostly due to its use in plastic and therefore packaging. Plastic is currently a widely used material in this field and so is often used by designers and so the industry is having to look to other methods of packaging in order to reduce the use of it, especially as the price of oil continues to rise.