Limits to Growth

[thrashaholic]

In my eyes, it won't end up being a problem because resources are never really 'used up', they're only changed and with enough energy can be changed back again (recycling etc.), so the only constraint to growth, as it has been throughout history, is the amount of energy we can produce.

As resources are used up and become more expensive (supply curve shifting inwards with fixed demand curve), people will be more inclined to explore new ways of extracting that resource that may have been unprofitable before, but now aren't (they're 'on the margin'); for example: oil exploration in Alaska didn't begin until the technology and price were such that it was profitable to do so, likewise there are vast untapped oil reserves in harder to reach places that haven't been exploited because the cost of doing so would be greater than the reveue generated (they are 'beyond/below the margin'). Consequently, it is conceivable, in fact it is almost assured, that when prices and technology rise to a state where it would be profitable to extract carbon from the atmosphere/trees/other plantlife and turn in into oil someone will do it. The same applies for other resources, when it becomes profitable to recycle them, people will.

EDIT: Some will now no doubt be saying that "this isn't growth!", but the the growth would come from the industries doing the recycling and the energy extraction industries (probably mostly nuclear, solar, wind etc.), plus the growth in service and financial industries for the increasing population.