I wasn't arguing about the timeline (and specifically mentioned this), I argued that resource = 1000 resource_use = 0.1 # per year resource_use_growth_fa

I wasn't arguing about the timeline (and specifically mentioned this), I argued that resource = 1000 resource_use = 0.1 # per year resource_use_growth_factor = 1.01 # per year resource_regrowth = 0.0001 # per year loop { resource += resource_regrowth resource -= resource_use resource_use *= resource_use_growth_factor if (resource <= 0) { print("Resources depleted") exit(1) } } Fiddle with the numbers any way you like, if you use more of a resource than regrows per year you will eventually have used all of it up at some point. Then you will be able to just use the amount that regrows from one moment to another. The timeline could be 10 years, 100 years, 1000 years, but humanity needs to 1. Know when that resource is likely going to be depleted, ideally decades or longer before it happens 2. Develope workarounds, alternative resources etc. to eventually just use the regrowth rate 3. Use resources that have higher regrow rates (aka "sustainable" ones) and stay within the limits 4. Don't forget to price in the externalities into resource use during its whole life cycle (this can be many millenia for some materials) Right now the level is that some people even seem to grok the extremely simple reality of growing resource use with a limited resource eventually hitting a cutoff point. Granted my model here is extremely simplistic, but even if you factor in stuff like undiscovered resource sources and a rate of new discoveres, eventually on a planet with finite resources you will run out of them unless you just use the amount you can sustainably use.