Transcript Document

Intensity of Use for Selected Materials US: 1900-2000
Kilograms/GDP (indexed to 1940)
100
Plastic
10
Aluminum
Timber
Lead
Phosphate Rock
Potash
Paper & Board
Steel
Potash
Phosphate Rock
1
Paper & Board
Copper
Lead
Timber
Steel
Plastic
0.1
Aluminum
0.01
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
Data Notes
Notes: Consumption data are divided by GDP in constant 1996 dollars and indexed to their value for 1940. (For example, in 1900 the United
States consumed 253,000 metric tons of lead and GDP was 311 billion dollars, giving a ratio of about .814 metric tons of lead per million
dollars GDP; in 2000 1,740,000 metric tons of lead were consumed and GDP was 9224 billion dollars, giving a ratio of about 0.189 metric
tons per million dollars GDP.)
Data for US Gross Domestic Product 1900-1928 are in 1996 dollars and are taken from Balke, Nathan S., and Robert J. Gordon. 1989. "The
Estimation of Prewar Gross National Product: Methodology and New Evidence." Journal of Political Economy 97 (February): 38-92.
Data for US Gross Domestic Product 1929-2000 are in 1996 dollars and are taken from the Bureau of Economic Analysis National Income
and Product Accounts Tables http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/dn/gdplev.xls
Data on US Minerals consumption 1900-2000 are taken from the U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 01-006 Historical Statistics for
Mineral Commodities in the United States -http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/of01-006/
Data for Timber and Paper & Board 1900-1998 are taken from Industrial Wood Productivity in the United States, 1900-1998 Ince, Peter J.
2000 Res. Note FPL-RN-0272. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory
Data for plastics for 1935-1991 were compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey Minerals Information Team, Reston, VA. Data for plastics for
1992-2000 were taken from Chemical & Engineering News, June 25, 2001, pp. 44-51.