[Agren]

I'm trying to compose a good counter argument towards the people who say that today the economy is less dependant on energy and raw material usage than it used to be. The energy parts I can probably figure out myself, not too difficult to find statistics.

However, I need some help with the raw materal part, anyone having any good statistics for the world usage of various raw materials, like iron, wood, copper, fresh water and so on? Please share

[nocar]

Well, I would take Heinberg's argument (The Party is Over) about energy and extend it to raw materials: It does not matter if the rate of energy or raw materials to GNP (or whatever the letters are) is less, as long as we still use more energy or raw material in the absolute sense; more kW and more kg of various stuff. I would try the World Watch Institute in Washington, DC or the Springer book in the IGBP series "Global Change and the Earth System

[Agren]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'a')s long as we still use more energy or raw material in the absolute sense;

[Specop_007]

Look at historical prices of raw materials versus Chinas growth for the last...Ohhh.... 5 years.

[Tyler_JC]

If the world didn't need steel to function properly, take it out of the picture. Imagine a world where we stopped making new steel. If it looks like Babylon in 2000BC then we obviously need the stuff. All economic interactions that don't involve actual products are only possible because of other transactions that do involve real products.

No one would buy Ford stock if Ford stopped making cars.