Finite World/Resource depletion

[David MacInnes <macinnes@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greg Nowell

If I have interpreted your post correctly, you are arguing, in part,
that as incomes and population grow and technology changes, previously
unexploited natural resources replace old, partially consumed, natural
resources, such as the substitution of oil for coal, and new devices
and products, such as catalytic converters, are created to economize on
over used natural resources. I would only add that the third process,
the substitution of relatively abundant natural resources for relatively
scarce natural resources, may be more important than you have indicated.
A noteworthy example is the substitution of wood by coal as an energy
source in the last century.

One way of conceiving these three processes is that, over the long run,
the earth has been, and is being, incrementally consumed, or partially
consumed, while it is being replaced by manufactured devices and
controlled landscapes. In other words, as economic growth occurs, the
capital/land ratio increases (problems in defining the units of such a
ratio are acknowledged). If economic growth is pursued to its logical
conclusion, the result is not much nature and an abundance of
manufactured devices and controlled landscapes. Some people, maybe most
people, may not have a problem living this way, but others might, hence,
the political debate. The other species do not spend money or vote, so
they do not have any input into the decision to drive them into
extinction, hence, the moral issue.

With respect to the capability of politics to prevent the incremental
destruction of nature and its replacement by capital, I am pessimistic.
Those who favour continued growth- capitalists(including fishermen),
unemployed workers, the family and friends of the unemployed and those
who want higher incomes-are far too powerful and numerous to be ignored.
In the end, this is why the fishery on the North East coast of North
America collapsed, and the reason why we will continue to consume nature
while replacing her with our technology.

David MacInnes