This dead horse has been kicked often, and this is just one more time.
So I will get my mine in, especially since we have long since passed
from fact to hyperbole, which always makes for fun reading.

When I was in grade school, the science textbook I read proclaimed
universal famine and the complete depletion of all our minerals and oil
would take place in the mid 1970's. No big deal since this was the
1940's so we could enjoy ourselves till then.

They also proclaimed that the population of the earth would increase
exponentially so there would be no breathing space. Soylent green,
anyone?

The problem with most predictions is they operate from the known and
extrapolate with no understanding of the future. Technology becomes
steady-state. And prejudices are built in to the prediction. Who could
have predicted then that oil reserves now are enough to support the
world for another hundred to 250 years, depending on who you listen to?
Or that there is enough natural gas reserves to last 10,000 years (yes,
that is 10,000. This info is from Technology, an excellent MIT mag.). Or
that most of the western nations have either zero or negative population
growth. Estimates say that the earth could support well in excess of 25
billion people (some say as high as 35 billion). We sure have room for
about half that in Maine. But with current population trends, we are
more likely to settle out around 10 billion (not Maine, but the world).

As far as materials, many metals are in a glut status and not scarce at
all.

Add in GMO (might as well start another firestorm) other energy
technologies (including nuclear and fusion), new materials, etc. and the
future looks rather good. I like the saying that an optimist sees the
glass half empty, the pessimist half full and the engineer says use a
smaller glass.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Me