Peak Everything - Why Everything Costs More

[dmcowen674]

They for got the biggest one of all

Peak Greed



12-13-2012

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/in-demand.html

Peak Everything - Why Everything Costs More


The iconic Peak Oil example has inspired parlor-game questions about other resources. Some, like coal, are finite; others, like water, are renewable but have limits to how quickly reserves can be replenished.

Can Earth keep up with our demand? Call it Peak Everything.

Peak Population--Driving the Race for Materials

Peak Tuna--Sushi Endangers Atlantic Bluefin Species

Peak Water--Era of Clean and Cheap Comes to an End

Peak Iron--Emerging Markets Keeps Prices High

Peak Coffee--Climate Change May Stress the Beans

Peak Coal--Industrial Age Icon Has Clean Competition

Peak Food--The Earth Can Manage It. Can We?

Peak Phosphorus--Running Low Except as Pollution

Peak Spectrum--Will Devices Overload the Airwaves?

Peak Rare Earths--Metals that Play Hard to Get

Peak Fracking--Only Natural Gas Limit is Regulation

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Most people aren't smart enough to understand basic principles of Malthusian biology.

 

[Texashiker]

They for got the biggest one of all

Peak Greed

We will never reach peak greed.

I do not know what to say on the peak everything topic. There are a lot of things that come to mind, but putting those thoughts into words is a little difficult.

Where I live, a large part of the economy is timber related. Meaning a lot of people work in the woods cutting trees. How else are we going to have lumber to build home with.

When I see vast areas of once natural forest striped to the bare soil, everything, and I mean every kind of tree and bush cut down or run over, oak trees that are close to 100 years old bulldozed into a pile and burned, I have no words to describe my feelings.

Why can't we live in peace with nature?

What are our children supposed to do for safe drinking water?

We can not even eat the fish around here without a mercury warning? What is it going to be like in another 50 years?

Not only are timber companies stripping natural forest, but oil companies are fracking the soil under the trees.

 

[BoberFett]

Dave, it's time for you to step up and be a leader.

Forsake modern society and it's greed and destruction.

Go live in a cave somewhere.

And never come back.

 

[dmcowen674]

Dave, it's time for you to step up and be a leader.

Forsake modern society and it's greed and destruction.

Go live in a cave somewhere.

And never come back.

You first

 

[sm625]

It is possible to educate even the most obtuse person on the basics of peak resources. Start with a picture like this:

Here we have an ore mine. It doesnt matter which because the same story applies to all ores. I'll use copper as an example. We've used up all the easy to obtain copper. So we have to dig these huge mines and haul up massive quantities of raw rock by the truckload to process it. As ore grades diminish, the amount of copper obtained from a truckload decreases. Right now the major mining operations are only getting a few pounds of copper from a single truckload. This decline is well documented and thus easy to graph and make projections into the future. Soon we will only be getting some number of ounces per truckload.

Now if you look at that picture you notice that the trucks have to drive a long loooong way to get from bottom to top. And they are big trucks, so it takes many gallons of fuel to make the trip. Which means it costs many gallons of fuel just to mine a few pounds of copper. Dont forget that the truck itself costs money, as does the equipment that actually digs the hole.

If the price of copper is lower than the cost of pulling it up out of the ground and processing it, then the mine will close. That is why we never truly run out of any resource. This is especially true for coal. That stuff sells by the ton. You can have literally thousands of tons of coal waiting to be mined. But if it costs $X dollars to mine it and it only sells for less than $X then it wont get mined. That is why all those estimates of "400 years of coal" are just complete bunk.

Try to visualize the potential amounts of coal or oil or copper that we will never ever use because it is not dense enough to bother with mining. The sheer quantity can be truly massive. Once you do that, it is easy to understand how we can get into trouble long before we run out.

 

[BoberFett]

You first

Why would I do that? You're the one bitching about how horrible society is.

 

[Genx87]

When will we reach "Peak Stupidity"?

 

[dmcowen674]

When will we reach "Peak Stupidity"?

Americans keep voting Republican so we have already reached "Peak Stupidity".

 

[desy]

Great example sm
I always use the apple tree anaology the easy to pick apples you can reach from the ground then you need ladders 'technology' then the effort to get the apples on the top are greater than the reward for getting them leaving lots of unreachable apples.

Copper used to be mined at 2.5% its now down down to .5%

 

[Genx87]

Americans keep voting Republican so we have already reached "Peak Stupidity".

I will give you that one Dave.

 

[Texashiker]

It is possible to educate even the most obtuse person on the basics of peak resources.

Have you been keeping up on Mountain Top Removal Mining?

Seems its causing all kinds of problems with water supplies down stream from the mountains.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/razingappalachia/mtop.html

75 percent of West Virginia's streams and rivers are polluted by mining and other industries.

Its sad that we have gotten to the point where we are leveling mountains to get to natural resources.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

When will we reach "Peak Stupidity"?

The popularity of the Birther movement? Could that have been the peak of stupidity?

If Rick "anal goo" Santorum wins the Republican nomination, would that be the peak of stupidity?