By sheer limitations of the human brain, it can be hard for us to look past the time span of our own lives—short as they are.
I don’t mean to be a downer, but it’s true. Imagine what technology will look like 100 years from now. What about 500? Imagine what transportation will look like then.
Today there are more innovative technologies arising in the world of transportation, so by virtue of the year that you’re breathing in, you might be able to picture subsea, high-speed trains. Maybe you pictured Elon Musk’s Hyperloop.
But I’m willing to bet that at least some of you pictured flying cars—or some variant thereof. Moreover, if you asked someone living in the 1950s that same question, they would undoubtedly have pictured just that. That’s ultimately a very narrow view of what future transit might look like and it draws off of the fact that cars are what we’re used to.
It’s only natural that we have a hard time fully envisioning things that we haven’t experienced (it’s the same reason you can’t imagine a new color—seriously, try it.) But that presents us with serious limitations, especially in the worlds of energy and computing.
While the concept of “peak oil” is still hotly debated, it’s difficult— really impossible— for anyone to assert that petroleum is an infinite resource on our planet called “Earth.” If we look far enough to the future, it’s easy to see that eventually we’ll run out. But what’s even more important to understand is that oil is far from the only resource that we will eventually run dry on—and not even close to the most imminent.
The following infographic from VisualCapitalist.com depicts the estimated amount of time that we can still count on the resources that we depend on every day. And that’s not just fuels we’re talking about—after all, antimony for batteries, lead for a lot of stuff, and indium for solar panels are all expected to be depleted by 2030. Somewhat ironically, so-called “rare earth” elements are the most abundant, but I digress.
Rodster on Sun, 15th Feb 2015 9:55 am
I can certainly see clean drinking water as being the #1 resource. Sure Bill Gates likes to drink recycled poo waste water but that’s far different from water that is toxic and lethal from industrialization.
Apneaman on Sun, 15th Feb 2015 10:29 am
There are 12 resources in that chart and you can’t get the bottom 11 without cheap & plenty of the first one – the master resource. Good luck mining any significant amount of anything without diesel powered equipment.
Dredd on Sun, 15th Feb 2015 10:56 am
Not all of them are poison.
The crude oil, dirty coal, and methane based gas are all deadly toxins when burned to release GHG into the clean air (which was not on the list).
The most important peak that has been reached is sanity (The Peak of Sanity – 3).
Makati1 on Sun, 15th Feb 2015 6:36 pm
These will always be available … but not at the energy cost that most can afford. The end of each will happen when there are no consumers that can pay the high cost of recovery/refining/transport, not when there is no more available in the earth.
Makati1 on Mon, 16th Feb 2015 12:42 am
Davy, I noticed that you too have resorted to name calling when you cannot give a good rebuttal. LOL. I have never been called a “creep” but then it never touches me anyway. Maybe I am a bit creepy to a brainwashed, elite American. So what?
I don’t feel any pain. I learned to handle harassment in the Army Officer Candidate School long ago, from professionals who were paid to try to break new officer cadets. You, and a few others on here, are amateurs in that arena. It takes two to have a “war” and I am not interested. You are not worth the trouble.
You say you see the trouble the US is in and the hell it spreads around the world but you don’t want anyone else to point them out. Especially if they affect you and yours directly. Too bad. That’s life.
I must have hit a nerve with my comments. Reality is a bitch and truth is truth, no matter the source. AS for “geting down and dirty” I don’t stoop to those levels, Davy. I only get dirty working in the field or garden or building something useful. I am skilled in all of those areas. I don’t have to learn, I teach.
Have a good day! ^_^
Davy on Mon, 16th Feb 2015 6:49 am
Mak, I love when you respond to me because it shows I am under your skin with truth and reality. Your rebuttal is just a ruse for the basic facts. The facts of the situation are you are an anti-American agendist that uses selective facts to deliver a personal message of hate and resentment. Your comments are by their very structure a propaganda statement because there is no balance or fairness.
You are an extremist in your criticism of the US and to a lesser extent the developed west. You then proceed to glorify your home team which are the Asians in particular with a focus on the Brics primarily China and Russia. You glorify your home team and show the positive side of your home team and the negative of the US in every comment. I on the other hand criticize both. I am perfectly fine dealing with my dirty laundry as an American. The US has been hijacked both internally and with its foreign policy. I am fine with this criticism. I am not fine with a whole sale condemnation of everything American. I am not fine with the erroneous belief in a new 1000 year Asian hegemony when in truth Asia with its 4BIL people in an area smaller than Russia is in vast overshoot. Your adopted Philippines refugee is a 100MIL in the space of Arizona ranking 170 or 172 on the global environmental index.
Asia is also overconsuming and over populating. It is moving in the wrong direction not only for Asia but the rest of the world. That puts Asia squarely in the wrong. The west is likewise in the wrong of which the majority anti American on this site focus on. Mak, what do you not understand about balance. What could be more sobering for extremism than balance? We are in a globalized world that is in a brittle relationship that cannot be changed except by a collapse of BAU.
If you want to point fingers at name calling you do that daily to my people and by extension me. You have also done that periodically to me personally. So you are in fact a hypocrite to point fingers. You are a creepy old man with a failed US life you are trying to mentally cover for with attacks of hatred and resentment. The worst of your attacks are your wanton desire for the missiles to fly to the US. Your pea size brain can’t get a handle on MAD concept of NUK war.
So Mak, in conclusion moderate and I will ignore you. Be an extremist I will attack you. It is as simple as that. This site is predominately anti American but most I ignore because they are responsible with their comments. They offer some balance and fairness from time to time. I don’t care if they are your friend Mak because birds of a feather flock together. People like you roost were they find support.
Makati1 on Mon, 16th Feb 2015 7:48 am
Davy, attack and I will ignore. My life is full and it is getting even more interesting. I am not afraid of the future, but you are too young to understand that freedom from fear of death.
You are the one stuck in a country that is becoming the most hated in the world. you possibly have kids to worry about, if I remember correctly. For that, I am sorry. I would not want to be raising a family today. It was difficult enough in the 70s and 80s.
This site is not predominately anti-American, the world is. You just don’t want to see it. The ones you call ‘anti’ are just the ones that see the hypocrisy and bullshit flowing out of the government, killing the innocent in other countries, and are speaking out. If the UFSA survives it will exist in self inflicted isolation.
You just exemplify the typical brainwashed American flag waver. Which Goldman Sacs sponsored candidate are you going to vote for in 2016? Both are already owned by the elite. That is, assuming that there will be an election.
BTW: The weather forecast for tomorrow is: Partly cloudy, high around 90F, winds ESE 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 10%. But then that is the weather forecast for most every day here. Temps from 70s at night to 80s daytime. What is it in Missouri?
Davy on Mon, 16th Feb 2015 8:32 am
I am lovin it because the Makster hackles are up. His hypocrisy is flaming. Mak, if you did not have cognitive dissonance issues with what I say you would not respond. The problem is I am speaking the truth that shatters your agendist views. Your comments cannot hold up to mine because I do not deny the worst of the US that you effectively broadcast with your personal message of hate and resentment. You are the one that has the duel burden of condemning all that is American and glorifying your home team. I have no burden because I attack both.
Here I am responding to your bile:
Your life is a dead end in a cheap condo in the heart of overshoot Asia in a small barrio of Makati. You survive hypocritically from an American social security check you do not deserve.
You don’t know me Mak and my relationship with near death which I can attest to. You claim a phony near miss from a white phosphorus grenade. What a joke of an unlikely example.
I am 20 years younger than you at the height of my intellectual abilities you are well into your senile phase of your twilight years.
Yes I am very worried about my children but I did not dessert my kids. I will stay to fight and die for them if need be. No running off like a coward to a tropical cheap third world destination because I am a failure.
You are correct the US is the most hated in the world that is an obvious fact and there is no denying this. I hate many thing American. That does not make it reality and fact. This is only partial reality and fact of which you anti-Americans exploit in your agendas. You anti-Americans throw stones when the reality is your shit stinks as bad or worse in select situations.
I am a flag waiver that waives is an upside down flag of corruption, manipulation, and hypocrisy of the American foreign and domestic realm. The US is a mercenary state purchased by the highest bidder. Those bidding are the global plutocrats of every nation that can buy influence and power. That includes people for your adopted region Makster.
I am trying to expose the brainwashing on both sides. The anti-American extremism and the phony American flag waiving.
Mak, are you trying to be an idiot quoting the weather forecast. What a dupe. The weather is very cold and snowy. I walk out this morning in the dark to a beautiful snowy cold morning with the smell of wood burning from my warm cabin. I brushed off the snow from around my bird feeder for the many birds I feed daily.
It is a beautiful morning. I will get out shortly and cut wood and do something not sit around a cheap ass condo pool and surf the net to satisfy a distorted agenda. Mak, get out to your jungle hang and do something instead of just talking about it.