Are minerals limited on earth? What are some ways to conserve resources?
- Posted:
- 3+ months ago by selena123...
- Topics:
- earth, mineral, resource
Answers (2)
Yes they are, the only way to realistically conserve them is to recycle but even that has limits. In the future better technologies may enable us to recycle things better than we do at the moment or the rising cost will make what is now prohibitively expensive to mine become a viable option much as we now get oil from oil shale, something that was seen as ridiculously expensive compared to drilling just 20 years ago.
In the far future of course we'll have to look to the other planets and the asteroid belts for our mineral demands and out there are oceans of petroleum and entire thousand ton rocks of gold, platinum iron, etc.
Yes, all minerals, metals and things like fossil fuels are limited. Some metals risk running out relatively soon. For example, at the current rate of using Aluminium, there will be none available by 2040. What then will we make aircraft from?
Whilst in theory metals are 100% recyclable, in practice that cannot be achieved, so recylcing only delays the inevitable. Copper has now risen so high in price that its starting to appraoch the value of gold. No copper would mean problems for using electricity, as its the best conductor available.
Nor should it be overlooked that in taking things out of the ground for our ulimate use and then disarding them in one way or another, we are poisoning our living environment. Some great minds, such as Stephen Hawkins, say the future of humanity lies in space.
What they don't seem to take into acocunt is that by the time we have developed the technology to have interplanetary travel of any significance, we will have nothing left to build that kind of spaceship with, except iron, which is far too heavy for that purpose.