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Earth's Copper Supply Inadequate For Development?
ScentCone writes "Pennies, pipes, untold miles of CAT5 - they tie up a lot of copper. Unlike abundant iron and aluminum, copper is relatively scarce. But it's vital to electricity generation/transmission, plumbing, and other uses central to a modern standard of living. Scientific American is providing a quick overview of the situation. They report the conclusion that there simply isn't enough available. Canada, Mexico and the US average 170kg of copper use per person, and the most generous estimates suggest that only 1.6 billion unused metric tons exist. More reclamation and use of fiber, wireless, and PVC helps - but won't be enough to cover the billions of people who don't yet live in highly wired/mechanized societies."
"One of the reasons I formulated my anarcho-capitalist belief system...."
You do realize Heinlein has you beat by 50 years or more, right?
Jaysyn
There is a war going on for your mind.
>>Dig deeper, you'll find more. Leave dry wells alone, they'll regenerate. You're forgetting the TYPE of oil. The oil that is being found isn't usable for fuel but more for lubrication. As for this part "Leave dry wells alone, they'll regenerate." - WTF did you get that idea? - your Bible? You do realize oil is a byproduct of dead materials from days gone by don't you? Which means when its used up its gone.
Hardly. With 200 pounds of copper I can run all the electrical devices in my house indefinitely.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
Notice this line: The sum of these covers an area of nearly 77,000 km2. In fact, the reserve that is deemed to be technologically retrievable today is estimated at 280-300Gb (billion barrels). This is larger than the Saudi Arabia oil reserves, which are estimated at 240Gb. The total reserves for Alberta, including oil not recoverable using current technology, are estimated at 1,700- 2,500Gb.
At what cost to the environment? Pump that much carbon into the world, and we're fucked. Period.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
ther Idea of recycling is a good thing.
As it turns out, it isn't any real good at all, and is abused to get motre money out of the tax payer.
It's tremendously expensive, costict, and a burden on the people.
What we need is good waste managment.
Really, I hole a couple of miles along each dimension would last us over a thousand years.
Just don't put it where you will be building communities.
And yes, hole technolgy is quite feasable.
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