"If we run out of phosphorous reserves, we can just dredge the rivers of the world to get it back!"
Yup, that sounds sane to me.
"If we run out of easily accessible gas and oil reserves, we can just destroy the arable farmland of the world to find more!"
Yup, perfectly sane.
"If we run out of fresh water, we can just recycle sewage and run solar-powered desalination plants."
Says the economist who has never looked into the power required to desalinate sea water at the scale required to support a city.
Next he'll be saying, "oh, we can just power the desalination plants and hydroponic sheds with nuclear power" (which just means we'll run out of fissile material faster).
No mention of 'sustainable production' in his screed at all.
There is absolutely nothing sane about that essay. You can't live on money. You need food and water, and for the sake of food security you can't rely on power supplies other than the Sun to grow that food and bring you that water. A nation dependent on its power grid for food and water is ripe for terrorism, industrial sabotage or corporate oligarchy.
At least he included multiple positive stories of government interference. If the free market says something nessesary is not worth it, tip the scales to MAKE it worth it. Tax hikes on polluters and non renewables and tax cuts for going free would go a LONG way. Too bad it won't ever happen.
This is about as unbalanced and binary as you can possibly get. That alone doesn't make it wrong, but this article is so far from the middle ground that you'd need a telescope to see it.
Yup, that sounds sane to me.
"If we run out of easily accessible gas and oil reserves, we can just destroy the arable farmland of the world to find more!"
Yup, perfectly sane.
"If we run out of fresh water, we can just recycle sewage and run solar-powered desalination plants."
Says the economist who has never looked into the power required to desalinate sea water at the scale required to support a city.
Next he'll be saying, "oh, we can just power the desalination plants and hydroponic sheds with nuclear power" (which just means we'll run out of fissile material faster).
No mention of 'sustainable production' in his screed at all.
There is absolutely nothing sane about that essay. You can't live on money. You need food and water, and for the sake of food security you can't rely on power supplies other than the Sun to grow that food and bring you that water. A nation dependent on its power grid for food and water is ripe for terrorism, industrial sabotage or corporate oligarchy.