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Home Front Economy
Gloom, doom, agony, platinum
2006-01-20
This week's Chicken Little moment brought to you by: vanishing metals!
If all nations were to use the same services enjoyed in developed nations, even the full extraction of metals from the Earth's crust and extensive recycling may not be enough to meet metal demands in the future, according to a new study. To investigate the environmental and social consequences of metal depletion, researchers looked at metal stocks thought to exist in the Earth, metal in use by people today, and how much is lost in landfills. Using copper stocks in North America as a starting point, the researchers tracked the evolution of copper mining, use and loss during the 20th century. They then combined this information with other data to estimate what the global demand for copper and other metals would be if all nations were fully developed and using modern technologies. According to the study, all of the copper in ore, plus all of the copper currently in use, would be required to bring the world to the level of the developed nations for power transmission, construction and other services and products that depend on the metal.


The study, led by Thomas Graedel of Yale University, was detailed in the Jan. 17 issue of the journal for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. For the entire globe, the researchers estimate that 26 percent of extractable copper in the Earth's crust is now lost in non-recycled wastes. For zinc, that number is 19 percent. These metals are not at risk of immediate depletion, however, because supplies are still large enough to meet demands and mines have become more efficient at extracting these ores. But scarce metals, such as platinum, face depletion risks this century because of the lack of suitable substitutes in such devices as catalytic converters and hydrogen fuel cells. The researchers also found that for many metals, the average rate of usage per person continues to rise. As a result, the report says, even the more plentiful metals may face similar depletion risks in the future.
Here's a groovy Element Hangman game for those of you with too much time on your hands.
Posted by:Seafarious

#12  Is the article trying hard NOT to say that CCAM's commentator Steve Hoagland's alleged scheme by "global gulagists" to PC exterminate 5-1/2B of the world's 6.0B human population. more or less, prob "more", is "justified". The Left > "Quick, quick, quick, Communism + Totalitarianism + OWG + Absolutism now, D*** YOU, because the Sun is going to get hotter and hotter and then suddenly explode. We don't know when, where, or why, and so far Solar Output vv MSM/Hollywood's DAY AFTER TOMORROW is "normal, but just because we're Secular Intellectuals, Scientifists, and Pragmatists-Realists doesn't mean we have to tell you anything - you have Have H-A-V-E TO BELIEVE WE DON'T KNOW ERGO DO AS WE TELL YOU".
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2006-01-20 23:25  

#11  Site saved to my favourites. Thanks muchly!
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-01-20 21:22  

#10  The total quantity of matter and energy available in the universe is a fixed amount and never any more or less.

Thusly, since chunks of metal don't tend to leave earth on their own, nor do their oxides and salts, no loss to landfills is going on. All is needed is some work to retrieve metals from their temporary repositories.

We can train some species of bacteria to aggregate metals for us.
Posted by: twobyfour   2006-01-20 17:21  

#9  When the metals become rare enough, it will be economically feasible to mine the landfills for stuff that got thrown out and not recycled. Or we can find substitutes. There is almost always more than one solution to an engineering problem; the market uses the one that is most cost effective at the moment.
Posted by: Unavimp Whainter8073   2006-01-20 17:10  

#8  Here it is...http://counterterror.typepad.com/
Posted by: Grins Sluper5274   2006-01-20 16:14  

#7  Grins Sluper, I sould love to read it, do you have a link? (Lots of sites show up when I googled Counterterrorismblog and Zawahiri). Thanks! :-)
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-01-20 15:58  

#6  I'm not a regular here....but I wanted to tell someone who is...there is a new Zawahiri tape out...and he makes no mention of the missile strike...matter of fact ...he recites poetry to dead fighters in Afghanistan...its up at Counterterrorismblog....they think its an old tape.
Posted by: Grins Sluper5274   2006-01-20 15:42  

#5  Turn a couple of engineers loose on it and the problem will go away -- everybody knows that!
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-01-20 15:40  

#4  ...and Gaia knows best.
Posted by: Seafarious   2006-01-20 15:37  

#3  Hopefully, the islamo krazed killers will win, and we'll all merrily go back to 7th century : voilà! No more extensive industrial needs, no more metal depletion! See? No need to worry!
Posted by: anonymous5089   2006-01-20 15:14  

#2  and if we keep growing telecomm services all the people in the world will be employed as telephone operators .... just like they predicted in the 40s and 50s.
Posted by: lotp   2006-01-20 15:10  

#1  Here's a clue for ya' - there's this big honkin' belt full of asteroids not too far away and them babies have all sorts of metal in 'em. And if that isn't enough or they run dry, there's this big thing a ways farther out called the Kuiper Belt that's just chock full of all kinds of stuff.

There's a saying about that that escapes me right now...something like "stripmine the earth now, we'll get to the rest of the planets later".

Posted by: FOTSGreg   2006-01-20 14:58  

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