>Every gallon of oil, every mineral that doesn't find its way back through recycling effectively disappears. I realize this is a hell of a caveat, but if we ev

>Every gallon of oil, every mineral that doesn't find its way back through recycling effectively disappears. I realize this is a hell of a caveat, but if we ever get fusion running in a real way, our problems of resource scarcity are essentially solved. Like you said, the elements we have on Earth right now aren't actually consumed, they just get shuffled around. Make electricity cheap enough, and un-shuffling what is needed becomes economically viable in a way that energy-as-provided-by-oil could never achieve.