Difference between revisions of "Material/Intro"
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
[[Image:Air sea and land.jpg|right|120px|Atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere (a.k.a. air, sea and land)]] Air, water and the twenty most abundant elements in the Earth's crust provide almost all the material needed to create the multitude of machines and goods that mankind requires: food, drugs, houses, vehicles, robots, industrial machinery, computers, consumer goods and so on. | [[Image:Air sea and land.jpg|right|120px|Atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere (a.k.a. air, sea and land)]] Air, water and the twenty most abundant elements in the Earth's crust provide almost all the material needed to create the multitude of machines and goods that mankind requires: food, drugs, houses, vehicles, robots, industrial machinery, computers, consumer goods and so on. | ||
<p> | <p> | ||
| − | Extracting these plentiful elements (and their compounds) to create useful material essentially involves [[Fundamental resources/Energy|energy]] (which is also plentiful) and the right processing methods. From a technical point of view there is practically no limit to the volume of material we could extract and make use of, if we so wished, even while minimally disrupting complex and fragile ecosystems. The reserves of raw materials needed to sustain civilisation are simply not going to run out, because the entire {{wp|Lithosphere|Earth's crust}} is made up of them. However this is no excuse to be unnecessarily wasteful in our consumption. Advanced recycling will reduce the need to extract material from the ground and more efficient design will allow us to {{wp|Ephemeralization|do more with less}}.</p> | + | Extracting these plentiful elements (and their compounds) to create useful material essentially involves [[Fundamental resources/Energy|energy]] (which is also plentiful) and the right processing methods. From a technical point of view there is practically no limit to the volume of material we could extract and make use of, if we so wished, even while minimally disrupting complex and fragile ecosystems. The reserves of raw materials needed to sustain civilisation are simply not going to run out, because the entire {{wp|Lithosphere|Earth's crust}} is made up of them. However this is no excuse to be unnecessarily wasteful in our consumption. Advanced [[recycling]] will reduce the need to extract material from the ground and more efficient design will allow us to {{wp|Ephemeralization|do more with less}}.</p> |
The point is that any existing material scarcity actually has little to do with the reserves at our disposal. | The point is that any existing material scarcity actually has little to do with the reserves at our disposal. | ||
Revision as of 23:00, 24 January 2009
Extracting these plentiful elements (and their compounds) to create useful material essentially involves energy (which is also plentiful) and the right processing methods. From a technical point of view there is practically no limit to the volume of material we could extract and make use of, if we so wished, even while minimally disrupting complex and fragile ecosystems. The reserves of raw materials needed to sustain civilisation are simply not going to run out, because the entire Earth's crust 
is made up of them. However this is no excuse to be unnecessarily wasteful in our consumption. Advanced recycling will reduce the need to extract material from the ground and more efficient design will allow us to do more with less .
The point is that any existing material scarcity actually has little to do with the reserves at our disposal.
