The Crash Course, Revised Edition

CHAPTER 21Minerals: Gone with the Wind

These next few chapters won't be a grim recitation of the various environmental stresses and issues that currently plague the world, though they are numerous and distressing.

There are many incredibly detailed sources chronicling the depletion and mismanagement of the earth's resources, perhaps none better than Lester Brown's Plan B series (currently in version 4.0) from the World Watch Institute. I would direct all interested readers to that fine work.

Instead, we're going to tell a story around our dependence on and use of natural resources, especially what are called nonrenewable natural resources such as hard rock ores. That story, when coupled with the energy story, illustrates just how unsustainable our entire economic reality is.

I do not intend to diminish the importance of environmental issues, or to intentionally or unintentionally subjugate them to money and the economy. Rather, the main point to which I adhere is this: The most immediate “environmental” impact we will feel in our own lives will be transmitted to us first via the economy. If the economy fails us, then we will lack the resources to protect and preserve the environment anyway, as we will be worrying about survival, which inevitably trumps all other considerations. We should strive to stabilize our condition first, and then set about repairing what we can.

Quantity and Quality (Again)

The story of energy basically boils down to two “Qs,” quantity and quality. ...