Originally Posted by
sycld
But I think you lost my point in this whole debate. You said:
"Aside from fuel resources (fossil fuels, etc.), most of the important ones are plentiful enough that we can probably rely on them lasting at least until we're able to take advantage of extraterrestrial resources. I don't think there are any material resources that are both so scarce they are going to be entirely depleted before that happens, and so crucial that civilization can't get along without them."
...which seemed to imply that we wouldn't have issues with materials even if all people consumed metals at the rate that we currently do in the US.
My original point which you seemed to have contention with was that not only is energy a concern, but material is a concern as well. I didn't say that such material issues were impossible to deal with, but merely that there are going to be technological issues with materials, and not just energy (as many people seem to argue.)
When I hear about how the Western lifestyle cannot be supported by the Earth, I usually hear it in terms of energy, water supply, and perhaps land use for food. I rarely if ever hear it in terms of materials supply as well, and as we're apparently only realizing now that is a concern as well: the Earth doesn't have effectively "infinite" stores of every material we need.
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