[joak]

When a resource is scarce we can either dig for more or replace by something equivalent.

It was a time when there wasn't enough whales to light everyone. We killed (almost) all the whales before coming up with something else (oil)

[pfdietz]

Biological resources like that are exceptionally vulnerable because harvesting them reduces the rate of creation of replacement whales, in a vicious cycle.

[BlueTemplar]

Somewhat fascinatinagly, being renewable doesn't actually change the dynamics :

https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2011/05/peak-oil-thermo...

(With the exception that whales, if left alone, might eventually bounce back.)

[adrianN]

Most nonbiological resources don't get any replacement at all.

[pfdietz]

But they have enormous stockpiles, compared to the biological resources. The upper 1 kilometer of the Earth's continental crust contains about 10^19 tonnes of cobalt. There is no similar stockpile of whales.

[fwungy]

The abiotic oil theory says that oil is produced as an intrinsic result of deep earth geothermal processes.

Peak oil theory may have been right about the peak, but wrong about the steepness of the right tail.

Russia has had success with drilling for oil based on the abiotic theory.

[pfdietz]

The abiotic theory of oil is also bullshit. I wonder why people keep talking about it.

[fwungy]

Russia has been using it successfully in their fields to predict deposits.