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Ok… > Even a boom in electric vehicles has not been sufficient to counteract this, since manufacturers have done their best to reduce use of the formerly super
by zaroth 4y ago
Ok…
> Even a boom in electric vehicles has not been sufficient to counteract this, since manufacturers have done their best to reduce use of the formerly super-expensive metal.
- cocoggu 4y agoOops indeed not totally awake yet
- joak 4y agoWhen a resource is scarce we can either dig for more or replace by something equivalent. It was a time when there wasn't enough whales to light everyone. We killed (almost) all the whales before coming up with something else (oil)
- pfdietz 4y agoBiological resources like that are exceptionally vulnerable because harvesting them reduces the rate of creation of replacement whales, in a vicious cycle.
- adrianN 4y agoMost nonbiological resources don't get any replacement at all.
- pfdietz 4y agoBut they have enormous stockpiles, compared to the biological resources. The upper 1 kilometer of the Earth's continental crust contains about 10^19 tonnes of cobalt. There is no similar stockpile of whales.
- fwungy 4y agoThe abiotic oil theory says that oil is produced as an intrinsic result of deep earth geothermal processes. Peak oil theory may have been right about the peak, but wrong about the steepness of the right tail. Russia has had success with drilling for oil based on the abiotic theory.
- BlueTemplar 4y agoSomewhat fascinatinagly, being renewable doesn't actually change the dynamics : https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2011/05/peak-oil-thermodynamics-and-stoic.html?m=1 https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2011/05/peak-oil-thermo... (With the exception that whales, if left alone, might eventually bounce back.)