We Will Never Run Out of Water, Food or Oil

The problem with this is that it obfuscates the truth. We will, for all practical purposes run out of oil - what remains in the ground will not be viable to remove -

Economics is like the United States - it’s nowhere near perfect, but we have to use it until something better comes along. (I also take issue with anyone who would describe it as a science - a science would imply a standardized set of answers for standard problems. At no time is this true. 5 economists, 5 differing answers)

“We will, for all practical purposes run out of oil”

Thousands if not millions of barrels of usable oil will still be in the ground long after we have already found another source for energy. We will have already moved on because the price will have already been too large for most consumers. See the link in the post if you’re interested in more.

I agree with the author that we will never run out of water, but for a different reason. The author’s argument is valid if we assume technology development outpaced our consumption rate. On top of that, there are fundamental laws of physics that prevent unlimited growth. For example, 1000 miles a gallon SUV is highly unlikely energy-wise in a real world (using alternative energy source is another thing, but then the energy has to come from somewhere.)
History tells us that we will never run out of resources for a different reason. We’ll fight each other to death for the very limited resources, which is a real sordid way to maintain equilibrium.

In the future we will need to rely on different technology, that is true. The other variable that you don’t mention in the equation, is the time lag between need it and have it. That is how long we will spend truly suffering from ‘running out’. And don’t forget, the less-well-off (that’s most of us) WILL run out before the rich do.
Lastly, the 1000mpg suv will never happen, there isn’t enough energy in a gallon of gas to do that even at 100% efficiency.

We can run out of any limited resource, especially since the world’s population continues to increase, putting more pressure on natural resources. Potable water, oil, food are all limited resources.

The Ogallala aquifer in the Midwest is being depleted because it’s being used faster than it can recharge. Has it run out? No, but it will if we don’t change how we use it.

Are (some of) the wars in Africa being fought because they’re fun? No, it’s because they’re running out of food. We (and Africa and China) didn’t run out of food in 1815 because–in large part–of Norman Borlaug’s work to increase wheat production. Can we keep doing that indefinitely? Clearly not.

Regarding your microeconomics class, you’re thinking of Thomas Malthus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthus

Oil is a possiblity I belive. We may not see a situation where the earth’s wells dry up anytime soon, but foreign relations will always dictate how our resources are spread and used.

The real question I want answered is how much oil our country produces is ACTUALLY USED in this country. I’d take a dare and say that number is very small because its not as profitable as warmongering and worth price gouging.

Water is a slim possibility. I walk into a grocery store and see a stack of name brand bottled water literally 12 foot high and have to kinda laugh. 7/10 of the globe is covered in it, albeit extracting healthy water from every source requries technology that is ‘expensive’ or not even made yet. Some of it just simply undrinkable.

However all it would take is a few scientists to scare up some facts (and they still try) and get the right kinda politcal aim going to make this a much more desirable resource. Its very hard to make this a belivable statement to a consumer though. A lot of us can go outside and find a body of water. Very few can go outside and see a oil leak in their yard.

Food? Chemistry and Biology will never allow it. Next time you take a trip to your local Wal-Mart MegaSuperFoodCenter pay special attention to the produce section. You will notice the Apples are not that varied in shape and color. Draw whatever conclusion you like from that, but ‘genetics and cell engineering/cloning/etc’ from the perspective of where living species are involved is a very much moral issue stemming from religion, politics and other factors. A large amount of people would never stand over an apple tree and try to defend its morality, now would they?

Evidently, the author will never run out of oversimplifications and grammatically poor sentence structure.

This is just a mix of markets-works-efficiently arguments and what happens in the Third World doesn’t effect me.

Go back to college; Take some econ and ecology courses.

First off sorry for my bad english
(not my first spoken language)

Eventualy we will run out of non-renuable resources,

We will never run out of water maybe of clean purified water if this world continues to extracts resources at the rate it is going.

Water is not much of an issue as it can be created out of H 2O and we have alredy created a machine capable of adding those two elements together to create water.
And of course this world will have too run out one day don’t be stupid.

My bigest issue it runing out of space witch we alredy are.
Why? Because to my opignion diffrent countries will try to conquer other areas and in result WAR will eventually happen.(WW3)

My other scares are energies, we already have bio-dizel ,ethanol but eventualy these will ALSO run out.
Nuclear is still new to this world steam engines have already been created and work 2x times BETER thant regular gazoline motors. Why arent these aviable on the market?
because gaz and car compagnies are giving BIG money to sillence these creation to enrich themself.

technologie does not always have the anwser plus creating a sucsesfull technologie to solve a problem like this one takes alot of time.

AND to MY opignion you a fucking reatard go to school and try to base yourself on acctualy facts and not bushit you make up to make your world without worries.
(public is free.)