Amount of Materials Extracted from Earth Tripled Since 1970

More than 38 billion tons of material were extracted from the Earth in 2017 for trade, a figure that shows how much the demand for raw resources has increased in recent decades, a new United Nations report has found.  The materials include biomass, such as wood and crops for food, energy and plant-based materials; fossil fuels, such as coal, natural gas and oil; metals, such as iron, aluminum and copper; and non-metallic minerals, such as sand, gravel and limestone, according to the report.  From 1970 to 2017, the amount of materials extracted from the Earth globally tripled, according to the report. - ABC News