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You cannot even assume that innovation can automatically fix supply issues: unconventional oil extraction is possible because unconventional oil is there in the

• nostrademons 9y ago
  The great thing about capitalism is that it's agnostic about the solution, though. If the unconventional oil isn't there, there's a strong incentive to develop other energy sources like solar. The previous energy crisis - Peak Whale Oil - was resolved that way. We didn't end up discovering a new source or species of whales. Instead, we found that this 300M year old black gunk that comes out of the ground could be refined into all the products that we used whale blubber for, plus several others. And there was much more of it available, and it took a lot less labor.
  • giomasce 9y ago
    Very good, as long as it works. There have been cases in the past when people did not find the innovation they needed at some point, and have experienced extinction or close extinction. I would like to not risk that again, also because that would be the first time where the extinction risks to be global, not just local. I liked very muche Collapse by Jared Diamond. He discusses some cases of this type, starting from the iconic history of Easter Island.
• Dylan16807 9y ago
  It's true for most minerals, though. We're mostly mining the easy stuff. I'd guess that for just about all rocks we're much closer to the easy end than we are with oil, with no real worry of running out.