Since the World War II, many economies have transitioned from an agrarian, biomass-based to an industrial, minerals-based metabolic regime. Since 1950, world population grew by factor 2.7 and global material consumption by factor 3.7-71 Gigatonnes per year in 2010. The expansion of the resource base required by human societies is associated with growing pressure on the environment and infringement on the habitats of other species. In order to achieve a sustainability transition, we require a better understanding of the currently ongoing metabolic transition and its potential inertia. In this article, we present a long-term global material flow dataset covering material extraction, trade, and consumption of 177 individual countries between 1950 and 2010. We trace patterns and trends in material flows for six major geographic and economic country groupings and world regions (Western Industrial, the (Former) Soviet Union and its allies, Asia, the Middle East and Northern Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa) as well as their contribution to the emergence of a global metabolic profile during a period of rapid industrialization and globalization. Global average material use increased from 5.0 to 10.3 tons per capita and year (t/cap/a) between 1950 and 2010. Regional metabolic rates range from 4.5 t/cap/a in Sub-Saharan Africa to 14.8 t/cap/a in the Western Industrial grouping. While we can observe a stabilization of the industrial metabolic profile composed of relatively equal shares of biomass, fossil energy carriers, and construction minerals, we note differences in the degree to which other regions are gravitating toward a similar form of material use. Since 2000, Asia has overtaken the Western Industrial grouping in terms of its share in global resource use although not in terms of its per capita material consumption. We find that at a sub-global level, the roles of the world regions have changed. There are, however, no signs yet that this will lead to stabilization or even a reduction of global resource use.

中文翻译：

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全球新陈代谢过渡：1950-2010年，全球物质流动的区域格局和趋势。

自第二次世界大战以来，许多经济体已从以生物质为基础的农业转变为以矿物质为基础的工业代谢体系。自1950年以来，世界人口在2010年每年增长2.7倍，全球物质消费在每年3.7-71千兆吨。人类社会所需的资源基础的扩大与环境压力的增加以及对其他物种栖息地的侵犯有关。为了实现可持续性转变，我们需要对当前正在进行的代谢转变及其潜在惯性有更好的了解。在本文中，我们提供了一个长期的全球物料流数据集，涵盖了1950年至2010年之间177个国家的物料提取，贸易和消费。我们追踪了六个主要地理和经济国家组和世界区域（西方工业，（前）苏联及其盟国，亚洲，中东和北非，拉丁美洲和加勒比以及亚非）的物质流动模式和趋势。 -撒哈拉以南非洲），以及它们在快速工业化和全球化时期对全球新陈代谢格局的出现做出的贡献。从1950年到2010年，全球平均人均材料使用量从人均5.0吨增加到10.3吨/年。区域代谢率从撒哈拉以南非洲的4.5吨/年/人增加到14.8吨/年/人年。西方工业集团。虽然我们可以观察到由新陈代谢，生物能源，化石能源载体和建筑矿物质的份额相对相等的工业代谢状况的稳定情况，我们注意到其他地区倾向于使用相似形式的材料使用的程度有所不同。自2000年以来，就其在全球资源使用中的份额而言，亚洲已经超过了西方工业集团，尽管其人均材料消耗却没有。我们发现，在亚全球范围内，世界区域的角色已发生变化。但是，目前还没有迹象表明这将导致稳定甚至减少全球资源的使用。