Metabolic Profile of the Colombian Economy from 1970 to 2007

Abstract

Summary This article characterizes the societal metabolism of the Colombian economy, identifying the main factors of natural resources use, overuse, or exhaustion. The environmental sustainability of a country depends to a large extent on the size of the economy compared to the available resource base. Material flow indicators provide an assessment of size or scale of economies. Direct material flow indicators are used to analyze the ecological dimension of economic activity in the period 1970–2007. Some resource extraction conflicts are briefly described in the light of material flow analysis. Foreign and domestic demand promotes increasing extraction and export of domestic natural resources. This is sometimes related to an irreversible deterioration of the local environment. The concept of “ecologically unequal exchange” with the rest of the world is analyzed in this context. Colombia has a large and growing negative physical trade balance, whereas per capita use of materials is still about half of the industrial countries’ average.

Extractive Economies in Material and Political Terms: Broadening the Analytical Scope

“…Underlying the development at this level of scale are subnational disparities that form part of the staple theory of growth [14], developed in the early 20th century for Canada and considering the role of what we might refer to as subnational core and peripheral regions in raw materials-based growth. While high-income countries in which extraction figures prominently may appear to form a contrast to those countries that exchange low-price primary commodity exports for high-price secondary commodity imports (e.g., Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru [15][16][17][18]), it is possible that they share communalities at the subnational level.…”

Caracterización Del Proceso De Especialización De La Economía Colombiana Hacia El Sector Extractivo

“…Diversos autores, como Nadal (2009), Vallejo et al (2011), Acosta (2012) y Svampa (2013) entre otros, afirman que un gran número de países latinoamericanos están reprimarizando sus economías. La reprimarización es entendida como la reorientación de los recursos de una economía, o de su perfil productivo, hacia actividades con reducido contenido de valor agregado, predominantemente las primario-extractivas, incluyendo la actividad de ensamblaje y otros procesos industriales con escasa utilización de conocimientos (Slipak 2012).…”

The Biophysical Performance of Argentina (1970–2009)

“…; Vallejo ; Vallejo et al. ). These analyses describe the metabolic profile of peripheral economies over long periods and help to explain the socioecological implications of their trade patterns.…”