Depleting Resources (all listed are necessary for the production of reusable bags)
Natural Gas
Trees
Coal
Minerals
Oxygen production > Both by trees and and aquatic o2 producers
Water
Water intensive
- Cotton requires the largest amount of water in all of agriculture. “It takes between 10,000 and 20,000 liters(of water) to produce one kilogram of cotton”. For you to consume that much water it would take ten to twenty years. Cotton’s water requirement results in a loss to our fresh drinkable water and some communities face long term water scarcity. To balance out this impact a tote bag would have “to be used 20,000 times”. When added to the amount of tote bags that have been collected in this recent climate change trend, it is simply impossible for a single tote to be used that many times.
Questions answered
How do resources depleting contribute to environmental impact?
Production of reusable bags (plastic-based produces most amount of emissions)
What happens after depletion begins?
LOCAL EFFECTS
The food chain of the ecosystems start getting disrupted. Populations start fluctuating leading to environmental instability and multiple animals are forced out of their natural habitats, leading them to wander into human society or become an invasive species to other environments.
Pollution caused by production of plastic based tote bags—
Trees in the surrounding areas start dying due to oversaturation of carbon dioxide and animals drink polluted waters leading to illness forming among the population. The toxic areas impact the surrounding cultures and civilizations living there as dependencies on a food that is no longer present at vast quantities, ends up forcing them to relocate. 
WORLDWIDE/GLOBAL EFFECTS
If global warming rates keep increasing like they are now, oxygen percentages will start to decrease, leading to an increase in carbon dioxide, ozone, and other trace molecules;Low oxygen means cellular respiration starts failing which is essential for life on earth as all animals on earth need oxygen for metabolism and food processing. Sea levels will rise due to the increased temperatures caused by the GHG (greenhouse gasses), there will be increased weather anomalies, shifts in animal behavior, civil unrest, starvation, illness, etc.
General Concern
Because of the promotion reusable bags are bringing another type of concern, Not only are the resources used for the creation of these bags harming the local environments, but if production were to increase, our environmental situation will worsen. Natural resources are being depleted by the urban and modern dependency on technology which requires these resources so that our societies can function properly. With vehicles such as Cars and buses that are needed for workers to get to their jobs, for packages to get on time, the reliability provided by not only vehicles on the ground, but in the air, is simply too great to not use it at all.
We use these technologies at our convenience and pay them no mind, yet cry about it later on the road of how the gas prices are increasing or how the food deliveries aren’t getting to the supermarkets on time because of traffic. Each vehicle uses up resources and we know this, but what are the resources? We have to think and start at the beginning. The production of these vehicles. They start out as lumps of metals separated for components on which will decide if they are to be used in boats, planes, helicopters, cars, trains, or even just a light switch. Not only metal, but oil, and countless other natural resources are being created just for our convenience and refusal to step out of our comfort zone simply because it’s not worth it. We will never be able to change with a mindset of current times if this is the case.
We need change, and we are slowly but surely getting it, thankfully. With The depletion of many resources in a single area which a civilization might be dependent on, the specific type of resource being extracted will become limited with time. It depends on the consumption, however it will ultimately lead into conflict where the shares of this resource is simply not enough to sustain those in their respective societies. The hunger for more will consume them and eventually war ensues. The two parties then take up their manufactured arms and head to the battlefield where countless tons of greenhouse gasses will be released, whether it be in the form of explosions or simply production of more weaponry. After and once this is over, one party will win and gather the natural resources of the other. And while this may keep that society alive for a few more years, it’s bound to happen again as these resources are limited.
Now, I’m not saying that this would inevitably happen in today’s world, right at this instance, however it is leaning to look that way as we are predicted to run out of these natural resources within 20 years. Some of these materials consist of: Metals, Coal, Natural Gas, and Oil; which we consume on a daily basis. When pollution due to our processing of these materials reaches a dangerous level, Acidic rains will start to fall which kill the natural ecosystem off, The air quality will worsen, leaving those who have asthma and other pulmonary diseases vulnerable to sickness, the crops and harvests will be reduced as the sunlight and weather anomalies impact farms, and overall, life will never be the same, or close to what it is like now. There are levels to this change and while it has yet to happen, we can predict what life will be like and we can change it right at this moment. We can live a life free of worry about these concerns if the company and producer giants will change their ways not for money, but for the life of billions of people on this small planet earth.
Sources:
https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecs2.2485
