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The Environment: Depleting Resources

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Adam Taggart via Peak Prosperity,

When we wander over to the third E in this story – the Environment - we note two things: both the increasing demand of exponentially more resources being extracted from the ground and exponentially more waste being put back into various ecosystems.

Because we are trying to assess here whether we can justify ever-increasing amounts of money and debt, for now let's just concern ourselves with the resources we take from the natural world to support our global economy.

Oil is not the only essential resource that is fast becoming more expensive to produce, harder to find, or both. In fact, we see an alarming number of examples depletion of critical resources that almost exactly mirror the oil story.

First we went after the easy and or high quality stuff, then the progressively trickier, deeper and or more dilute stuff.

The bottom line is this: we, as a species, all over the globe, have already mined the richest ores, found the easiest energy sources, and farmed the richest soils that our Environment has to offer.

We have taken several hundreds of millions of years of natural ore body, fossil energy deposition, aquifer accumulation, soil creation, and animal population growth -- and largely burned through them in the few years since oil was discovered. It is safe to say that in human terms, once these are gone, man, they’re gone.

So, if we are getting less and less net energy for our efforts, and the other basic resources we need to support exponential economic growth are requiring a lot more energy to extract because they are depleting, then does it make sense to keep piling up exponentially more money and debt? Isn't it just common sense to observe that money and debt have to exist in some sort of relationship and proportion to primary and secondary wealth?

For those who simply don't want to wait until the end of the year to view the entire new series, you can indulge your binge-watching craving by enrolling to PeakProsperity.com. The entire full new series, all 27 chapters of it, is available -- now-- to our enrolled users.

The full suite of chapters in this new Crash Course series can be found at www.peakprosperity.com/crashcourse

And for those who have yet to view it, be sure to watch the 'Accelerated' Crash Course -- the under-1-hour condensation of the new 4.5-hour series. It's a great vehicle for introducing new eyes to this material.

 

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Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:36 | 5502724 RafterManFMJ
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 ...have already mined the richest ores...

The message I got is BUY MORE SILVER, but I'm prolly biased.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:42 | 5502745 Skateboarder
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The worst thing that could possibly happen (apart from confiscation or being blown to smithereens) is that you end up with a shitload of fine silverware. And then you become a fine silverware salesman. :-)

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 20:31 | 5502930 MalteseFalcon
MalteseFalcon's picture

LOL. Long, long, long before any commodities run out, commodities investors, such as the author of this piece, are going to be wiped out and found dead in a dumpster somewhere.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 21:28 | 5503096 Lavoisier
Lavoisier's picture

The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent. And as people say, the market can remain irrational longer than you can stay sane.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 22:07 | 5503203 Cheduba
Cheduba's picture

Yes, if we ever "run out" of commodities, we will just start mining garbage dumps since they have become such rich deposits of valuable materials.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:50 | 5502775 Grifter
Grifter's picture

Check out the bloodbath in silver that appears to be unfolding as we speak Rafterman, just shattered the 5 year low.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:57 | 5502797 TurdOnTheRun
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I have never been happier.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 20:06 | 5502816 Serfs Up
Serfs Up's picture

Deflation wins!!

This whole thing swirls the bowl starting now.

That's the great victory that the CB's have secured by allowing the banksters to set a low price for gold.  My expectations are now firmly anchored.

Go ahead.  Drop silver.  Drop gold.  Drop oil.

I am sure you have some magic algorithm that says this is the correct thing to do.

Don't worry.  Complex systems always behave as expected.

So bomb on, you crazy diamond!!

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 20:25 | 5502899 Grifter
Grifter's picture

Me too, Turd.  Now I wish I had a Ferd Fteenthousand to back up...

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 20:04 | 5502813 thatthingcanfly
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Just opened up Kitco after reading your post. OMFG! What the hell is happening to silver!?

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 20:19 | 5502876 Grifter
Grifter's picture

Someone on one of the OPEC decision threads called it, said Silver/Gold would get banged but good come Sunday night.  Hat tip to _________ for the call.  (Will try to find it and come back to give credit where credit is due)

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 05:24 | 5503862 stacking12321
stacking12321's picture

a lot of people were saying that if the swiss SGI didn't pass sunday, gold would get smashed on the open.

sensible theory, and it was right.

i only wish i had more cash on hand; bought a couple hundred oz of silver on the smash, and it's rebounded 3% already.

i think this is the bottom or close to it, though, i've been saying that since $18 silver.

but i have every confidence that when the sham of fiat currency comes tumbling down, we will be vindicated. the cracks are already starting to form.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 22:46 | 5503322 hardcleareye
hardcleareye's picture

Doing what it historically does.... follows other commodity prices.....  oil, copper, etc etc.....  they are all getting hit and following oil.

How stong are they going to let the US dollare get?

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 20:41 | 5502952 MalteseFalcon
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Bloodbath in silver?

Just the energy momo boys puking up their metal.

They're finished.

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 01:38 | 5503667 RafterManFMJ
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I know! Reaction to the Swiss? I awake Monday, and will throw some fiat at it...

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:36 | 5502727 knukles
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But have we yet reached peak irresponsibility?
That dear friends, is the question

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 20:10 | 5502833 TulsaTime
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i would posit that condition to be an impossibility

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 20:12 | 5502842 Miffed Microbio...
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In Cali knucks, I think that is a definite yes. I haven't washed my car in 6 months considering we're in a terrible drought. Since I live on a dirt road, I've had to wipe the windows off or I'd be unable to see out.

It seems others don't share my sense of responsibility because their cars are simply gleaming. My attempts of inspiring a trend has failed. The only cool thing that happened was the asshole who complains my dirty car depreciates his BMW being parked next to it, got his car broken into rather than mine. Hee Hee.

Miffed

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 01:02 | 5503604 MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

Why is it his business to say shit to you about your car being dirty?

With a straight face, you give it to him both barrels complaining about his car being too clean, and how you are embarrassed to be parked next to someone so shallow as to be that concerned about appearances that they would notice a dirty car, never mind complain about one, even as CA is suffering a water crisis. Tell him you support gay rights and you support him, specifically, you always have, but you can't support this. There is gay, and then there is effete, and you just can't support effete. 

And, it looks like from the evidence, he is wrong. Clearly his car looks more valuable. Hee hee. 

Never mind. It ain't worth it, is it? 

I was taking old bottles I bought iced tea in and recycling them making my own tea and using stevia and lemon in it. I had a colleague shocked out of her mind that I would make my own tea and put it in a recycled glass bottle. I didn't even need to deal with her. Another colleague tore her a new one, asking her what business of hers was it, and he thought it was a good use of resources, and that I had the right to drink what I wanted in whatever containers I wanted. Appearances are everything to her. She never understood his point, at all.

Full circle. These are the folks who will not see it another way. This is why we will not have a "soft landing" but we are in for the hard crash/waterfall drop off.  Hang on. You know this. I do wish I could have been there when BMW ran his mouth. 

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 00:29 | 5503538 DaveyJones
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peak peckerheads

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:35 | 5502728 Senduko
Senduko's picture

Lol, the biggest manmade lie ever, make people believe resources have a limit. There are plenty or resources, they are in abundance, its just fearmongering to hike the prices.  BOOH I say 

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 20:02 | 5502808 Sophist Economicus
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Yup. The same comment could have been made 50 years ago, 100 years ago, etc

These peak guys crack me up. One day they'll think of something meaningful to hand-wring about

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 20:36 | 5502942 MalteseFalcon
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"Peak" guys are just talking their book and their book is crumbling.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 21:09 | 5503038 Coke and Hookers
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What I like most about the peak crowd is how easy it is to piss them off. Say something non-peak and they start foaming at the mouth. It doesn't mean I disagree, I just like fucking with them.

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 00:42 | 5503544 DaveyJones
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.

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 02:42 | 5503750 MsCreant
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;-)

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 22:35 | 5503282 Lavoisier
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Note, book crumbling never applies to precious metals.

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 20:29 | 5506638 MalteseFalcon
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Sure it does.  You been paying attention?

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:38 | 5502733 Seasmoke
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DEBT. RESET.  JUBILEE. HOLIDAY. 

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 01:07 | 5503613 MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

NO. Only for them, not us. Count on it.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:42 | 5502738 duo
duo's picture

The topsoil of the plains and central California, which took thousands of years to be created by native grasses, is nearly gone.  Heck, most of Illiinois looks like beach sand from the air, not the black dirt the settlers plowed up.  Let's use up more topsoil to make ethanol (a third of our famland every year).  We'll make the Mayans look smart.

Oh, and Adam, any relation to Dagney?

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:53 | 5502776 roccman
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overshoot, on life giving spheres populated with clever (not wise) beings, is a predictable condition.

 

http://mailstar.net/adam-and-eve.html

 

pay particluar attention the the Ezra text - The Epic of Gilgamesh should be required reading

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:50 | 5502779 TurdOnTheRun
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But the Mayans did not have 80" HD TVs.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:39 | 5502739 insanelysane
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If we can grow marijuana and tulips instead of using the land to grow food crops we still have a lot of environment left.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:47 | 5502762 knukles
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MaryJane growers need to learn good husbandry, to rotate the crops between MJ and Pizza trees.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:50 | 5502771 TurdOnTheRun
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I plant my weed next the Doritos bushes and the beer fountain.

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 01:11 | 5503619 MsCreant
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Sustainability! 

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:41 | 5502744 roccman
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and to believe this condition of overshoot VS peak resources/energy/people JUST SNUCK UP on every gubbermint on the planet...is a bit of a stretch.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:54 | 5502791 knukles
knukles's picture

Sheeeit.  The gubamints of the world don't care about resources.  All they care about is another excuse for greater money (taxes) power, property and prestige.
To wit:  Nazipelousy's 737 (or whatever that massive commercial jet was ) that flew her back and forth between CA and DC stockpiled with the best booze, champagne, wine, pate, canapes, dinners, etc., all on the taxpayer.
Excess use of every last single resource possible.
Same with Hillbillary traveling on her $400K per speech speeches, Gulfstream carrying 17 people, etc....
Who cares, except the plebes facing the shortages.
Hell, SanFran has not even been cut back during the drought because guess who lives there?
Nazi and it is, after all, the wealthiest city in America, now.  Yes, even more so than NYC

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:59 | 5502799 roccman
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It goes beyond caring.

 

William Catton wrote a seminole book in 1986 called:

 

Overshoot The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change

 

worth the read

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 20:06 | 5502823 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

The Seminoles are an Indian Tribe,

  but that's less stupid than the comment about top soil loss above.

      --- An Illinois farm boy----

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 20:09 | 5502828 knukles
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Waaaaaaaaaait....

The Seminoles are a Football Team!
You guys!

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 22:31 | 5503269 hardcleareye
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Go Gators......

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 23:53 | 5503475 TBT or not TBT
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Raycist!

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 21:46 | 5503143 Bumbu Sauce
Bumbu Sauce's picture

Look at her constituents...sodomites.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:47 | 5502763 TurdOnTheRun
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"...then does it make sense to keep piling up exponentially more money and debt?"

Yes. Yes, it does if you are getting very wealthy from the current system. If you are losing ground every year then you do not want the current system, unless you get handouts then you are ok with it.

Besides, it only costs $5 to dig it out of the ground.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:50 | 5502773 Taint Boil
Taint Boil's picture

 

 

Galactic-Scale Energy:

 

A must read for science and physics nerds. At continuous 2% growth for 2500 years we use up the entire Milky Way Galaxy in terms of energy ………..

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:50 | 5502781 roccman
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Thansk for the link.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 19:52 | 5502788 TurdOnTheRun
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Pffff...there are millions and millions of galaxies just in our galactic cluster. No reason to scare monger.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 20:01 | 5502806 roccman
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let's say we populated every life giving planet in every life giving galaxy in the known universe...

 

what's the plan when the last planet reaches an overshoot condition?

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 20:04 | 5502815 thatthingcanfly
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Cold fusion.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 20:06 | 5502824 knukles
knukles's picture

Japs are sending a probe to an ass-turd-roid to start mining whatever they find on the ass-turd-riod. 
Including Rainbow Flavored Skittle Shits and Unicorns. 
Never ever gonna run outa Unicorns.

Now sing along with me!

"Happy Days are Here Again"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXQOsERzr2c

Note: On the Record Label, one of the performers is named Yellen

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 21:19 | 5503074 Lavoisier
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I feel that I should add that the Milky Way is 100,000 light years wide, meaning that consuming it in 2,000 years would be impossible.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 22:29 | 5503263 hardcleareye
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Hint.... exponentiation growth........   it doesn't take long for the progression to be using some might big numbers.....

Sleeping during high school math classes????

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 23:21 | 5503297 Lavoisier
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My point is that limits to growth of energy consumption would be reached even sooner. I do know about exponential growth, and I was not sleeping during my math classes.
Edit: the problem is not that the required growth would not be as big as the galaxy. The problem is that since you can't exceed the speed of light, you can't reach all parts of the galaxy in the 2,500 years mentioned in the previous post. It would take 100,000 years to do that, so growth would stall sooner.

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 01:23 | 5503638 MsCreant
MsCreant's picture

Unless the consumption of energy made the consumers more dense, thus contracting the universe unto itself in an event horizon caused by the density, thus making travel distances shorter at first until you were actually approaching the black hole created by the consumption and the density. Once all the mass was assembled into one point, there woud be no light. All where whens would exist simultaneously, in maximum density. In that moment time would not stand still but would be seeable and knowable simultaneously. That mass would be God (as it always was). It would get it's mind blown. As it's mind was blown, it would say, "Let there be light." And then it would say, "Blow me." And the shit would start all over again. And on the 8th day, there would be bankers. 

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 05:37 | 5503871 stacking12321
stacking12321's picture

"The problem is that since you can't exceed the speed of light, you can't reach all parts of the galaxy in the 2,500 years mentioned in the previous post."

this is 3-dimensional thinking, and we live in a 17-dimensional universe.

has the move Interstellar, or star trek, taught you nothing?

wormholes are the obvious solution.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 23:22 | 5503339 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

Endless exponential growth is SO impossible that it DOES require exceeding the speed of light!

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 20:10 | 5502837 sunny
sunny's picture

You write: "...does it make sense to keep piling up exponentially more money and debt? "

It doesn't matter any more as the Fed is going to get a bill passed allowing them to print oil, food and clean water.  The Fed has our backs, not to worry!

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 20:20 | 5502879 Bumbu Sauce
Bumbu Sauce's picture

Reason number 10012 I'm glad I'm not a purely naturalistic origins objectivist.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 21:01 | 5503017 deerhunter
deerhunter's picture

met a General Electric engineer in a Dunkin Donuts in Cincinnati in 1989.  Looked at the numbers and the work.  Cold fusion was here to stay and very functional according to him.   Never saw him again after mid 1990.  Who knows.  I think they claimed to make energy from water right>  Not a scientist or engineer.  PHD in the life of hard knocks and trying to learn from others mistakes as it is a bit easier.  Free silver by morning it seems.  Buying then.  Night all.

Sun, 11/30/2014 - 21:14 | 5503051 HobbyFarmer
HobbyFarmer's picture

Soil is underappreciated. It contains more varieties of life in a single teaspoon than the does the entire amazon jungle (above soil).  It takes mother earth a century to create a single inch, but humans can destroy it in a handful of mis-managed years.

the bad news:

The US averages a loss of 3 tons of topsoil, per acre, per year. 

The good news:
using permaculture techniques, mulching, wood-chipping, remineralizing the soil, no-till planting, rotational grazing with livestock, cover-cropping, and intensive organic gardening techniques, soil can be rebuilt rapidly.

more bad news:
I don't believe these techniques can be done on the large scale.  These techniques will not feed the world.  Of my small hobby farm (less than 5 acres) I could feed the caloric needs of my family and perhaps one more.  (I don't use tractor power, so planting it all in grains isn't feasible-->I practice more of Fukuoka techniques).

The final good news:
if you spend the time developing YOUR soil, you and your family can benefit and grow nutritious and delicious foods that will heal your body, keep moisture in your land, and be around for your grand-children to enjoy.

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 07:00 | 5503430 Lavoisier
Lavoisier's picture

If those techniques were used in full scale, using all available arable land, it would be possible to feed only about 2 billion people. Somebody would gotta go.

I would like to avoid people shouting and calling me an Agenda 21 genocidal maniac, some way or another scores will need to be settled.

When creating mankind, God casted a curse upon it, "Go forth and multiply." Then we started to use the bodies of dead life, cooked inside the Earth's entrails for millions of years, to keep following the order. Quite a necromancy feat, it gave us almost 300 years of fun. What could possibly go wrong?

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 09:04 | 5504084 AE911Truth
AE911Truth's picture

I agree that: "Go forth and multiply." was probably good advise 2,000 years ago.  Today, not so much.

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 00:32 | 5503546 Leraconteur
Leraconteur's picture

It takes mother earth a century to create a single inch

 

Humans can rebuild that inch over a few square yards, in less than a year, using composting methods.

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 00:22 | 5503524 AmCockerSpaniel
AmCockerSpaniel's picture

This is a none issue. This is a self correcting problem. The worry is that this planet can not support the population. Well not to worry. The population is shrinking. Woman are now in control here, and they don't want children, or one at best one late in life. Chart that an see were the world will be in a couple on hundred years. America would be the epic center for this, if not for immigration. No one wants it, be us Americans are not producing enough replacements to fund SS or keep the GDP growing. We need a plan, and I have none.

 

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 08:57 | 5504065 AdvancingTime
AdvancingTime's picture

Even if self correcting it can be very painful and include much suffering.

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 00:43 | 5503568 Leraconteur
Leraconteur's picture

The bottom line is this: we, as a species, all over the globe, have already mined the richest ores, found the easiest energy sources, and farmed the richest soils that our Environment has to offer.

We have taken several hundreds of millions of years of natural ore body, fossil energy deposition, aquifer accumulation, soil creation, and animal population growth -- and largely burned through them in the few years since oil was discovered. It is safe to say that in human terms, once these are gone, man, they’re gone.

 

 

No it is not safe to say that. The water isn't off this planet - it is still here as is every other resource and chemical in said resource. Massive numbers of chemical bonds still exist on this planet to converted to joules, food, plastic, and other.

You Doomers have this odd Zeno's Tortoise/Achilles illogic gap but with social, environmental and economy matters.

Because something is now more difficult to obtain than before, you then run that out to infinity, declare we are out of said resource, and that we are all gonna die.

The Sun inputs massive joules to Earth every hour. Ignoring this input, as it is more or less a freebie, is what gets you guys all in a twist. So many ways to generate heat, it's pointless to enumerate them. The planet is fine, and humans are not going to have a die off unless someone lobs many hundreds of nukes.

Ever notice that when fish stocks are over fished that they then collapse, but to a lower level and STAY at that lower level?

Oil wells do the same thing.

Of course the takeaway is that fish schools reproduce and replenish their numbers, and thus Oil wells...

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 07:12 | 5503932 Lavoisier
Lavoisier's picture

Yes, the ocean is the gift that keeps on giving! It is so big and vast that it never will deplete! /sarc

I'm not sure if your post is sarcasm or just colossal stupidity. Just to have my peace of mind intact, and because I never lost anything expecting the lowest from humanity, I'm going to call you up on this.

Look at AmCockerSpaniel! Look at him and laugh!

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 01:14 | 5503576 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

Many of the comments above were exceedingly stupid. However, that fits in with the general nature of human civilizations operating on the basis of being able to back up lies with violence, which is conducive to developing attitudes of evil deliberate ignorance. Meanwhile, in my opinion, the ruling classes are well-aware of the problems of diminishing returns from being able to strip-mine the planet. Their "solutions" are intended to keep their basic social pyramid systems in tact. The ONLY ways that the ruling classes have prepared for the limits to growth on a finite planet are to stage more inside job, false flag attacks, to prepare for more genocidal wars, along with democidal martial law.

The real solutions to the limits to growth are, BY DEFINITION, DEATH CONTROLS. The established murder systems operate on the basis of the long history of having been socially successful through the maximum deceits. In turn, that enabled a political economy to be built on the basis of the maximum possible enforced frauds. Being able to make "money" out of nothing as debts, to "pay" for strip-mining the planet's natural resources, was triumphant legalized lies, backed by legalized violence, which have created social situations of overall criminal insanities. However, everyone who was most socially successful became so by operating inside of that system.

Many of the comments above reveal some of the stupid ways that individuals have to rationalize and justify their maximization of short-term concerns, regardless of the longer term consequences. Overall, the human species is preparing to commit collective suicide, while there is nothing practically possible to prevent that from happening, since society is controlled by the people who were the best at backing up lies with violence, while everyone else adapted to live within that situation. Therefore, the limits to growth means we are approaching PEAK EVERYTHING, in which PEAK INSANITIES will be the main manifestation of that. Many of the comments above demonstrate the ways that enough people think, i.e., they show their paths toward PEAK INSANITIES.

One way or another, adapting to real limits requires different death controls, which are central features to any emergent evolutionary ecology which was forced to adapt to those limits. Human beings have become apes with atomic bombs backing up electronic monkey money. Human societies are dominated by their biggest bullies' bullshit social stories. People are successful within society by being professional liars and immaculate hypocrites, that take personal advantage of operating inside of accounting systems which are based on enforced frauds. Of course, people tend to be proportionately successful within those systems of enforced frauds to the degree to which they deny and deliberately ignore the real facts about those enforced frauds.

A basic law of nature is that nothing can be created out of nothing, nor sent to nothing. However, within our currently entrenched sociopolitical systems, our "money" is made out of nothing, as debts, and can return to nothing when those debts disappear. Through those means our civilization is controlled by criminally insane attitudes, which are psychotically detached from the relatively objective facts about the natural environment. In that context, the most probable ways that our social pyramid systems, based on enforced frauds, are going to "resolve" the problems of the exponential depletion of natural resources are to mass murder the majority of the human population (while the attitudes enabling that may finally cause collective extinction.) That possible future will come toward us at an exponentially accelerating rate, the same as the basic problems driving that were developing at an exponential rate.

The social successes of systems of backing up lies with violence, or enforcing frauds, are driving debt insanities towards provoking death insanities. We are already too far gone in that direction to stop now, especially since plenty of people are still personally indulging in their own versions of approaches towards their peaking insanities, as demonstrated by many comments above (as well as by similar sorts of comments posted regarding similar previous articles on Zero Hedge.)

Almost everyone is personally adapted to operate INSIDE the fundamentally fraudulent financial accounting systems, that have been controlling our political economy in ways that have, overall, driven it to act in criminally insane ways, at an exponential rate, since everything it did was based on the increments of short-term successes based on the abilities to continue to back up lies with violence. Those who most benefited from operating those systems of organized lies operating robberies were most able to continue to thereby dominate society, and hence, drive society as a whole to become even more criminally insane. THE GREAT PARADOX WE FACE IS THAT HUMAN REALITIES WERE ALWAYS ORGANIZED LIES OPERATING ROBBERIES, WHOSE EXCESSIVE SUCCESSES HAVE BECOME THEIR OWN WORST ENEMIES!

To attempt to be "realistic" at this point of time is to face that facts that we are headed towards death insanities. Those conditions will be the circumstances in which it MIGHT become possible for better systems of death controls to emerge out of that sequence of events, as the natural selection pressures upon the artificial selection systems become way more intense! Natural selection will continue to drive the development of systems of artificial selection. The challenge to human intelligence, which originally was the result of internalizing natural selection, is whether it could survive through making relative quantum leaps to develop new death control systems, to then back up new debt control systems, which would enable more integrated systems of human ecology to be reconciled with better industrial ecologies, which also were integrated within greater natural ecologies?

Although that seems remotely possible, from a theoretical point of view, it is NOT possible as long as we have fundamentally fraudulent financial accounting systems, whereby "money" is made out of nothing, to "pay" for everything else! That situation actually exists due to history of how the debt controls were backed by the death controls. That situation of runaway debt slavery has generated numbers which have become debt insanities. THE BASIC SYSTEM WAS DEBT SLAVERY BACKED BY WARS BASED ON DECEITS. The main manifestations of the approach towards Peak Insanities were the ruling classes staging one inside job, false flag attack after another, to create the self-fulfilling prophesies of more terrorism, starting more genocidal wars, and preparing for more democidal martial law. The resulting debt insanity numbers are much worse from the perspective of the apparently irreparable destruction of the natural world, than they are from the perspective of the seemingly irreconcilable social polarization. 

The ONLY genuinely better resolutions to the actual ways that human beings are manifesting overshoot in a nutshell are better death control systems, where better means done in ways which are consistent with the development of weapons of mass destruction, which are trillions of times more powerful and capable, that actually reflects the ways that all our problems are now trillions of times worse than ever before in human history. Anyone who believes that they are preparing for that, in my opinion, is probably delusional, no matter what are the means whereby they pretend they are preparing. Especially since I would estimate that only about 1% of the people are aware of the problems enough to even bother to try to become "prepared," while 99% are able to indulge in their own personally insane world views which enable that to not bother to try to be prepared.

It is practically impossible to gain a genuinely saner perspective on the degree to which our society is criminally insane, and has been for a long, long time, which was for as long as social successes were based on the ability to back up lies with violence, that enabled people to believe in the bullshit that surrounded those social facts. In order to reconcile human civilizations with general energy systems, one has to address how and why governments became the biggest form of organized crime, controlled by the best organized gang of criminals, and therefore, our political economy became based on enforced frauds, which would maximize their abilities to rape planet Earth, while nothing could prevent that from happening.

What shall happen, eventually, is the emergence of new death control systems, which will become limits to the growth of the previously established human systems of organized lies operating robberies. Eventually, there MIGHT be some new human evolutionary ecologies develop, with accompanying industrial and natural ecologies. However, before that happens, it is possible that human beings will have committed collective suicide. Instead of arriving at some better dynamic equilibria between the different systems of lies operating robberies, those systems may become so criminally insane that the final result is their collective annihilation. Tragically, that seems the most likely future at the present time, since anything else would require some series of technological and political miracles, where those political miracles are the most important, and the most improbable.

It is an extremely difficult and dangerous, as well as profoundly paradoxical, undertaking for the human species to go through more quantum leaps of development towards achieving better death controls, after thousands of years of history was based on the most successful death controls being the most deceitful. Within a political economy based on enforced frauds, where most of the so-called economists are able to deliberately ignore the limits of the natural environment, because they deliberately ignore the way that making "money" out of nothing to "pay" for things IS ENFORCED FRAUD, our entire civilization is actually an out-of-control criminal insanity, operating through globalized electronic frauds, backed up by the threat of the force of atomic bombs.

In abstract theory, we ought to be developing better human ecology, to cope with the real limits to the environment. However, that would take developing better death control systems, inside of situation where the actual death controls are done through the maximum possible deceits about themselves, which operate through the maximum possible deliberate ignorance about themselves. In that context, many of the comments above were awesomely stupid displays of deliberate ignorance. The overall series of the "Crash Course" were more realistic about the particular problems, but never appear to integrate those into dealing with the crucial central issue of the development of different death controls, which are necessarily what was behind piling up more money-as-debt, at an exponential rate, in order to "pay" for high-grading ourselves to hell, as we strip-mined the natural resources of the planet.

If one studies the environmental issues more systematically, one will again and again discover that the death controls were at the center of all other issues. The production of destruction controlled production. Private property was based on backing up claims with coercions, while money was measurement backed by murder. Since those are the central social facts, any genuine solutions should address those issues as their first priority. However, that returns to the problem of developing better death controls, in the sense of more effective and efficient at achieving their necessary purposes, when the established systems are already based on the maximum possible deceits about themselves, and the controlled opposition groups continue to operate inside of the same deceitful frame of reference regarding the death control issues.

With respect to every episode of the "Crash Course" that I have so far watched, I assert the same basic criticisms, (which apply even more to some of the greater fools that post comments on Zero Hedge). Chris Martenson, et alia, do NOT go through enough intellectual scientific revolutions in their basic philosophy of science, in order to correct enough of the ways that the biggest bullies' bullshit has perverted the scientific enterprise, in similar ways to all other social enterprises.

Without that more profound intellectual scientific revolution, then it is not possible to perceive that we understood the concept of entropy backward, along with our common sense of time and space being generally wrong and backwards. Without correcting the most important and pervasive errors in our philosophy of science, then we can not correct our political science. Instead, we continue to mistakenly "understand" human energy systems backwards, in ways which make that impossible to reconcile with industrial energy systems and natural energy systems.

Guys like Chris Martenson skim across the surface, being correct upon the points that they touch down upon, however, they tend to not go any deeper. The intersection of energy, ecology and environment requires understanding that human civilizations operate according to the principles and methods of organized crime, and therefore, travel along the path of least morality. The task of organizing better resistance to change that path of least resistance is primarily an engineering problem. However, that perspective requires perceiving that warfare was the oldest and best developed form of social science and social engineering, whose social successes were based upon backing up deceits with destruction, including through spies being treacherous.

Economics is a subset of militarism. Militarism, as the ideology of the murder system, is the supreme ideology, because it self-actualizes itself to be so, at least so far, unless it ends up causing the human species to commit collective suicide, as the path we are on now, due to our civilization having become so criminally insane, due to the paradox of too much success, for too long, at controlling that civilization by backing up lies with violence, primarily manifesting as the overall problems of piling up money-as-debt, while strip mining the natural resources of the planet, VIA ENFORCED FRAUDS.

After facing those social facts, we should NOT continue to use false fundamental dichotomies, and their related impossible ideals, as the basis for bogus "solutions," because those are still expressions of the same old-fashioned biggest bullies' bullshit world view, that were promoted by those bullies, as well as adopted by the controlled opposition groups. Rather, we should become more genuinely scientific, in the sense of using more unitary mechanisms to perceive the actually existing situation, and to guide how we respond to those social facts. It was always the case that the debt controls were backed up by the death controls. IF we are going to develop better human, industrial and natural ecologies, THEN those must have as their central feature better death controls. However, meanwhile, we are rushing towards the established debt slavery systems generating numbers which are debt insanities, which in turn threaten to provoke death insanities.

It seems that the established systems, along with the controlled opposition groups, have operated too much for too long with evil deliberate ignorance, due to their satisfaction with their short-term benefits from their systems of organized lies operating robberies. It seems we are too far gone into exponential growth overshooting already, to prevent that from following through with the manifestations of Peak Insanities, which will be expressed as death insanity situations. However, as long as the human species has not already thereby committed collective suicide, then the alternatives for some better death control systems to become the lynch pin holding together a different system is possible. I believe that there are an abundance of creative alternative technologies which could be integrated into systems. However, that is not possible without the arch of that system of alternatives having its keystone in the form of alternative death controls.

It was not an accident, nor a mistake, that warfare and weapons became the priorities of history. Natural selection demanded that human systems of artificial selection operate death controls. Natural selection pressures drove the creation of artificial selection systems through the history of warfare. However, the problem we face now is that progress in science and technology, such as globalized electronic fiat money frauds, backed by the force of atomic bombs, has nothing like that appearing remotely possible within political science, due to the degree to which our civilization is dominated by deceitful death controls, backing up a political economy based on enforced frauds.

Chris Martenson appears to me to be a relatively progressive "scientist," like some others, who has enough intellectual integrity to start facing some of the basic facts, which caused him to change some of the ways he perceived and behaved. However, in my opinion, he does not get remotely close to going through the kinds of intellectual scientific revolutions which would be necessary to more comprehensively cope with the problems that he correctly identifies, within the interacting triangles of energy, economy and environment.

The pride of place should go to the death controls. Militarism deserves to be seen as the supreme ideology. That then follows the path of power and information through the War Kings becoming the Fraud Kings, i.e., the powers of sovereign states effectively controlled by the banksters. More radical truths about that should be the basis for a real, radical revolution in the philosophy of science, which then applies to political science, and so to the combined money/murder systems.

Those transformations ought to be perceived and guided using unitary mechanisms, whose goals are more realistic ideals, rather than continue to be based on false fundamental dichotomies, whose goals are based on impossible ideals. After all, there are good reasons to believe that energy will continue to be conserved. Therefore, it is appears that better systems to conserve more energy in more feedback loops of life and consciousness should be relatively possible.

I take the view that ENERGY IS SPIRIT. However, I see nothing remotely like that in the approach of guys like Chris Martenson, who continue to mostly operate through the paradigms of otherwise mainstream science, which presumes to continue to take for granted the errors in their fundamental philosophy of science, which then continue to sustain their mistaken views regarding political science, and therefore, their superficial attitudes towards money and murder systems.

Anyone looking at exponential growth charts has to wonder about what happens when the ride UP changes to actually be a ride DOWN! (Which we have not quite reached yet, although appear to be on the cusp of.) The biggest boom could be followed by the biggest bust. The greatest bubble may be that of the human population, and the total of all human activities, which could pop in unprecedented ways. In my opinion, at the present time the continuing triumph of the systems of enforced frauds backed by deceitful death controls means that our civilization is becoming more and more criminally insane. I REPEAT: we are headed towards the runaway away debt insanities provoking death insanities, as we reach some point of Peak Insanity.

In that context, the only genuinely realistic responses are going to become coping with the coming runaway death insanities, in ways which attempt to channel those towards developing into better death control systems. Meanwhile, guys like Chris Martenson are typical of those who tend to simply side-step that issue. Neither the established forms of militarism, nor the controlled opposition groups against that kind of militarism, are able and willing to go through the kinds of paradigm shifts which would be necessary to develop a genuinely better militarism. But nevertheless that is the issue which is at the center of the intersection of the issues of energy, economy and environment.

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 00:56 | 5503593 Ewtman
Ewtman's picture

Let's boil it down to the simplest measure of risk... it's a debt bubble, period.

 

http://www.globaldeflationnews.com/anatomy-of-a-bubble-how-the-federal-r...

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 08:50 | 5504048 AdvancingTime
AdvancingTime's picture

 To all the people who think the worlds surging population will not become a problem because of new energy sources I say, wake up! Anyone with even the slightest mechanical knowledge will tell you that solar panels, wind mills and such take a lot of energy to build and often are maintenance intense. 

Both these complicated systems have a short lifespan and require a great deal of energy to be expended in just keeping them up and running. Carry no illusions the days of cheap energy are behind us and not only has the low hanging fruit been picked it has been eaten. Sadly, if we look back we will see much of this energy was allowed to go to waste. The article below looks into the cost of failing to plan long-term.

http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/12/does-peter-principle-apply-to-mankind.html

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 09:26 | 5504135 gcjohns1971
gcjohns1971's picture

"The bottom line is this: we, as a species, all over the globe, have already mined the richest ores, found the easiest energy sources, and farmed the richest soils that our Environment has to offer."

And what happened to them then?

An aquaintance with reality would be helpful.  This is what environmentalists everywhere do not understand.

I recommend the first law of thermodynamics. "The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can't be created or destroyed, but it can be changed"

You can't use things up, only move them around.  When you've moved all you can one way, you start building machines to move it the other. 

Listen. REALLY LISTEN.  It is physically impossible to use things up.

PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE.  When we're done converting carbon hydrates into carbon-oxygenates, then we can use the carbon oxygenates to produce other useful things.

Life is the process of converting what you have into what you need.  What you need changes little over time.  What you have changes a lot and, at least for the last 4 billion years, always has.

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 10:03 | 5504208 Lavoisier
Lavoisier's picture

Diffused energy and materials are useless. You need energy to concentrate energy and refine ores. You are mentioning thermodynamics as an idiot cherry picking a bible quote, and ignoring the context. Do you know what entropy is?
If you "use" (deconcentrate) energy and minerals faster than they are concentrated by natural processes, eventually the day of reckoning will come.

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 09:37 | 5504156 gcjohns1971
gcjohns1971's picture

A stupid person sees that continually harvesting from the same patch of ground, continually using plant life to leach elements from the soil, and then distritubing those elements to the farmer's market results in that patch of ground being depleted.

A wise person understands that as one patch of soil is becoming depleted, another patch of soil somewhere else is becoming rich.

The resources in the soil moved to someplace near where the plant life was used.

This entire article and chain of posts is anecdotal support for inadequate science education in schools everywhere..

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 10:06 | 5504223 Lavoisier
Lavoisier's picture

Since we recycle nearly none organic matter, and we are crushing rocks, using natural gas and oil to make pesticides and fertilizers, yes, the resources in the soil are depleting. You won't recover them from the bottom of the ocean.

Your posts lead me to nominate you as the poster child for inadequate science education in schools everywhere.

Mon, 12/01/2014 - 09:41 | 5504165 AE911Truth
AE911Truth's picture

Ref: "the days of cheap energy are behind us"

Look into Blacklight Power and Brillioun Energy.

http://brillouinenergy.com/

 

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!