| Oil – that’s right, with prices at $140 a barrel, oil is almost as expensive as it once was. Get used to it. If you’re really worried, cut out inessential journeys, buy local produce, insulate your home (again) and wear a jumper. At least the high price makes it economic to exploit so far untapped reserves, so the more the price goes up, the slower we run out – for a while at least. Grain – In 1898, Sir William Crookes, president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, warned that global mass starvation was at hand. Population had doubled, agriculture couldn’t keep pace, and Malthus’s dread prediction of 100 years before would now come to pass. His call led swiftly to the development of chemical fertilisers on which we now depend. We hear the same warnings now, although the threat is not so dire and the remedy is right to hand – and good for you: eat less meat. Fish – When did you last buy a herring? Much of northern Europe once depended on the frankly limited culinary delights of this one fish. Now, we choose from half a dozen main species. Ever wonder why? Because herring (temporarily) ran out. Today, we’re told once again that the fish we enjoy are endangered. The solution is the same – diversify again. So try something different, as the supermarket slogan has it. Metals – Lead is disappearing from British church roofs, and copper plumbing being ripped off our homes, both smuggled abroad to feed soaring industrial demand. Metal prices are all up. How will demand be met? Remember that Limits to Growth (the 1972 original, not the censored revision of 2005) predicted we would easily have run out of copper, mercury, lead, silver, tin and zinc by now. We haven’t, partly many of us use less of them, thanks to miniaturisation and other technological advances, and partly because we recycle them more efficiently. Water – Rain is falling in all the wrong places and the glacier reservoirs that provide most of the world’s drinking water are not being replenished. More and more people are ‘water-stressed’. Yet there is all the fresh water the world needs, if not a huge excess beyond that. Luckily, it is far easier to save on water than on energy. Most households could halve their water consumption and hardly notice the difference. Helium – yes, even party balloons may soon be taken away from us. You see, every atom of helium on the planet is so light it has only one way to go – and that’s up, and up. Unlike all other materials that can in principle be recycled, all the helium is escaping into space. |
