Shorter working hours needed to save mother Earth.

A new UN Report has stated that saving the environment may require people to work shorter hours in the future.

The United Nations’ International Resource Panel Report says human beings will have to reduce the number of time they work in order to save the Earth’s natural resources.

The Panel's co-chair, Alicia Barcena Ibarra said that rethinking the way people use materials is essential if they are to safeguard humanity's future.

Ibarra said that a prosperous and equitable world that overcomes these problems will require transformative changes in how people live their lives and how they consume Earth’s materials.

She explained that the amount of raw materials extracted from the Earth has tripled over the last 40 years, saying Earth’s extraction rose to 70 billion tons in 2010 up from 22 billion tons in 1970.

Meanwhile, the efficiency of raw material use has been declining since 2000, just as their global use has rapidly accelerated as emerging economies like China embarked on ambitious industrial and urban transformations.

The report found that the world's richest countries consume on average 10 times as much raw materials the poorest nations and about twice the world average.

If the world continues on its current trajectory, by 2050 the planet will need three times more raw materials than are consumed today, intensifying climate change and pollution as well as ultimately leading to the depletion of the Earth's natural resources, the report said.