Many of the resources that we use to underpin our economy are finite resources.  When we have used them up we won't have the functions that they give to us.

In many cases, when we have used up a finite resource, we can find a substitute that performs its function for us in our economy; for example, we are replacing some of our use of oil as fuel with natural gas, as oil becomes more difficult to get and more expensive. 

However, there are limitations to the substitution of finite resources. 

The substituted resource is not always ideal; in this example natural gas is more difficult to move over long distances and it is more difficult to use as a transport fuel in vehicles than oil is.

Usually, when we substitute a resource we are replacing one finite resource with another finite resource.  If so, we are never solving the problem of resource depletion, we are only moving its consequences further into the future.  Eventually, we must use up all of the different resources that can perform that function for us.

Sometimes we may be able to replace a finite resource with a renewable resource; for example, we may replace some of our use of mineral oil with biofuel oil. If we were able to limit our use of these renewable resources to a sustainable rate, we could continue to have use of these resources indefinitely.

For some finite resources the reserves are so huge that is seems that we may be able to use resource substitution to relieve the limitations of finite resource use far beyond the foreseeable future.  However, for these resources, as wel as for substituted renewable resources, this is not possible because our use of them must always grow as our economy grows; and, because our economy grows exponentially, our use of these resources will always grow to be much greater than we expect, so that we use them up much sooner than we expect.  In the way our economy operates now, this growth is unavoidable, because growth is a fundamental, structural part of the way modern economies work.  

This page is linked from:

recycling finite resources

resource recycling and economic growth

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