Living Better in 'The Finite World'
Living Better in 'The Finite World'
A Finite Sustenance is Challenge of Our Time
Earth Seen From Apollo 17: Wikimedia Commons
by Craig Severance
December 31, 2010
A lot of things we use every day are about to get much less affordable.
That's the bottom line impact for the average family looking ahead at this next decade. This next ten years will be the time when serious world resource shortages begin to take hold, especially the expected Peak of world oil production.
Will we be able to grow jobs if we have no money left after filling our gas tanks? Who will be hurt the most? Will our entire civilization experience a catastrophic Collapse when world oil and other critical supplies begin to decline?
Most importantly -- is there still hope we can actually live better?
The World is Not Just Us. Though Americans are still hurting, prices of essential supplies and fuels (deemed Commodities by traders) are now rising because of greater world demand.
World population is increasing, and people almost everywhere now live on a lot less than we do here. Exploding economies such as China and India have been growing at rates over 8% per year.
They need to use more, just to meet their basic needs. No problem with that, except for this fact: there isn't "more".
The Finite World. We don't have the whole Universe to supply our needs. We live on this little round ball called the Earth, and it is finite. You can make your way around it in just a few hours in a space shuttle.
This little globe has been a really great kitchen cupboard to explore, but it seems we've just about opened all the drawers to all the pantries. Yet, more company keeps arriving and sitting down at the dinner table.
Graphs and charts (see links) can tell the story of depleting key minerals and especially the limits to production of our Master Resource, crude oil.
Common sense tells the story just as well. We don't live in an abstract world of infinite x and y axes. We live in a real, physical, world where there is only so much -- of anything.
Something Has to Give (and it is). With more people clamoring to use the same resources, the Law of Supply & Demand is kicking in. Prices for basic resources -- oil, metals, grains, cotton -- are all rising, much faster than many people expected just a few months ago. Just this week, predictions were circulating of $5 per gallon gasoline soon in the U.S.
Data Source: Dec. 31, 2010 Current Interactive Charts
An Economist's Finite World. Nobel winning economist Paul Krugman posted a tantalizing New York Times column this week entitled The Finite World. I say "tantalizing" because Krugman came very close to challenging the economic profession's central dogma -- the assumption of endless and infinite economic growth -- but in the end he backed away.
.
As more and more people in formerly poor nations are entering the global middle class, they’re beginning to drive cars and eat meat, placing growing pressure on world oil and food supplies.
And those supplies aren’t keeping pace. Conventional oil production has been flat for four years; in that sense, at least, peak oil has arrived. True, alternative sources, like oil from Canada’s tar sands, have continued to grow. But these alternative sources come at relatively high cost, both monetary and environmental ....
So what are the implications of the recent rise in commodity prices? It is, as I said, a sign that we’re living in a finite world, one in which resource constraints are becoming increasingly binding. This won’t bring an end to economic growth, let alone Mad Max style collapse. It will require that we gradually change the way we live, adapting our economy and our lifestyles to the reality of more expensive resources. (emphasis added)
Krugman then deflected from examining the full implications of The Finite World, and redirected to his main purpose.
It turns out the main point of Krugman's article was to argue that current increases in commodity prices "have no bearing, one way or another, on U.S. monetary policy." Krugman has been a promoter of economic stimulus, and was merely using this piece to defend against attacks that rising world commodity prices are a sign the world is devaluing the U.S. dollar.
The Great Precipice. Like a car careening in the dark, inches away from an unseen chasm, Krugman came right to the edge seemingly unknowing of the breach he almost vaulted.
If he had continued pondering the implications of The Finite World, he would have seen that economic growth may drop off a cliff when the economy's basic fuels and supplies become too scarce. How can you make and deliver more and more products, unless you have a ready supply of more raw materials and fuels?
Click here to read entire article.
A Finite Sustenance is Challenge of Our Time
Earth Seen From Apollo 17: Wikimedia Commons
by Craig Severance
December 31, 2010
A lot of things we use every day are about to get much less affordable.
That's the bottom line impact for the average family looking ahead at this next decade. This next ten years will be the time when serious world resource shortages begin to take hold, especially the expected Peak of world oil production.
Will we be able to grow jobs if we have no money left after filling our gas tanks? Who will be hurt the most? Will our entire civilization experience a catastrophic Collapse when world oil and other critical supplies begin to decline?
Most importantly -- is there still hope we can actually live better?
The World is Not Just Us. Though Americans are still hurting, prices of essential supplies and fuels (deemed Commodities by traders) are now rising because of greater world demand.
World population is increasing, and people almost everywhere now live on a lot less than we do here. Exploding economies such as China and India have been growing at rates over 8% per year.
They need to use more, just to meet their basic needs. No problem with that, except for this fact: there isn't "more".
The Finite World. We don't have the whole Universe to supply our needs. We live on this little round ball called the Earth, and it is finite. You can make your way around it in just a few hours in a space shuttle.
This little globe has been a really great kitchen cupboard to explore, but it seems we've just about opened all the drawers to all the pantries. Yet, more company keeps arriving and sitting down at the dinner table.
Graphs and charts (see links) can tell the story of depleting key minerals and especially the limits to production of our Master Resource, crude oil.
Common sense tells the story just as well. We don't live in an abstract world of infinite x and y axes. We live in a real, physical, world where there is only so much -- of anything.
Something Has to Give (and it is). With more people clamoring to use the same resources, the Law of Supply & Demand is kicking in. Prices for basic resources -- oil, metals, grains, cotton -- are all rising, much faster than many people expected just a few months ago. Just this week, predictions were circulating of $5 per gallon gasoline soon in the U.S.
Data Source: Dec. 31, 2010 Current Interactive Charts
An Economist's Finite World. Nobel winning economist Paul Krugman posted a tantalizing New York Times column this week entitled The Finite World. I say "tantalizing" because Krugman came very close to challenging the economic profession's central dogma -- the assumption of endless and infinite economic growth -- but in the end he backed away.
.
As more and more people in formerly poor nations are entering the global middle class, they’re beginning to drive cars and eat meat, placing growing pressure on world oil and food supplies.
And those supplies aren’t keeping pace. Conventional oil production has been flat for four years; in that sense, at least, peak oil has arrived. True, alternative sources, like oil from Canada’s tar sands, have continued to grow. But these alternative sources come at relatively high cost, both monetary and environmental ....
So what are the implications of the recent rise in commodity prices? It is, as I said, a sign that we’re living in a finite world, one in which resource constraints are becoming increasingly binding. This won’t bring an end to economic growth, let alone Mad Max style collapse. It will require that we gradually change the way we live, adapting our economy and our lifestyles to the reality of more expensive resources. (emphasis added)
Krugman then deflected from examining the full implications of The Finite World, and redirected to his main purpose.
It turns out the main point of Krugman's article was to argue that current increases in commodity prices "have no bearing, one way or another, on U.S. monetary policy." Krugman has been a promoter of economic stimulus, and was merely using this piece to defend against attacks that rising world commodity prices are a sign the world is devaluing the U.S. dollar.
The Great Precipice. Like a car careening in the dark, inches away from an unseen chasm, Krugman came right to the edge seemingly unknowing of the breach he almost vaulted.
If he had continued pondering the implications of The Finite World, he would have seen that economic growth may drop off a cliff when the economy's basic fuels and supplies become too scarce. How can you make and deliver more and more products, unless you have a ready supply of more raw materials and fuels?
Click here to read entire article.
Posted by Craig Severance at 12/31/2010 11:03 AM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: Economic Collapse Economic Crisis economy Resources Peak Oil Energy Environment Limits to Growth The Finite World Living Better jobs Sustenance Earth minerals globalization
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: Economic Collapse Economic Crisis economy Resources Peak Oil Energy Environment Limits to Growth The Finite World Living Better jobs Sustenance Earth minerals globalization
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