Question: How long do you think will end the planet's resources?

Hi Cristi!

That is quite hard to answer, and I fear I cannot give you a number. Every resource has its own life cycle. Speaking of resources: most precise estimates are about the “reserves”, that are all known deposits in the subsurface and deposits that can be extracted with today’s technology. The “resources” are hard to guess, because they include all unknown deposits and deposits which we cannot get out of the subsurface with our technology yet.

There are (very rough) estimates on how long a reserve will last based on a concept called “Hubbert peak theory”, which is based on the amount of reserve we have extracted and consumed so far. They said, for example for oil, that we should have used up the majority of available oil already. That was in the 1960s, in the 1990s, and now again. The thing is that we cannot really foresee how technology will evolve. So these estimates had to be shifted over and over again, so that this concept nearly lost its importance.

Another thing is that we are quite clever in replacing stuff. When we can’t use this one material anymore, engineers develop new materials with similar properties that also work.

So, Cristi, long story short – I can’t really give you one number. It will be outdated tomorrow already. 😉

All the best,
Andi