Page 45 - BBC Focus - August 2017

AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW

Richard Heinberg is a senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute. He argues
that right now we have an opportunity to alter our planet’s future for the better,
but we could miss it if we don’t act quickly enough

Anti-environmentalists often use a three-part strategy to depress the overall economy, reducing demand. There is no
talk their way around resource limits. First, sow doubt longer an oil price that works for producers and consumers.
by cherry-picking a few instances where predictions of Why not recycle all non-renewable resources? We should
scarcity didn’t pan out. Second, use the shaky certainly try, but recycling is no panacea. Sometimes
foundation of these failed predictions to dismiss recycling is too hazardous, such as when products contain
scientific evidence about resource limits. Third, advance toxic chemicals. Sometimes there’s little that can be made
the seductive idea that we don’t have to change our from a synthetic material after first use, as with many low-
behaviour because machines and markets will solve all grade plastics. Recycling often has prohibitive energy or
environmental problems. monetary costs. Some materials (including phosphorus in
That last point sounds too good to be true, because it is. fertilisers) become so dispersed that collecting and
While we’ll technically never run out of non-renewable recycling them would be impractical.
resources, there are real impacts from depletion. The Depletion of non-renewables contributed to the collapse
harvesting of Earth’s non-renewables follows the low- of past societies. Today, we extract and consume resources
hanging fruit principle. Extraction industries target at far higher rates than any previous civilisation. This is
resources that are easy to get. As these are exhausted, possible due to cheap energy from fossil fuels, which
miners go deeper and move to lower-quality resources enables us to mine, transform and transport other resources
that are often more abundant. But these entail higher in ever-greater quantities, even as resource quality declines.
energy and monetary costs, and worse environmental But fossil fuels are depleting too. Some say it won’t be easy
impacts. We’ll reel from those costs and impacts long to run industrial societies without extracting ever more
before we’re down to the last molecule of any resource. non-renewable resources. Yet we have no choice. Depletion
The oil industry offers an apt example. Decades ago, will bite harder every year until we make recycling non-
drillers focused on petroleum deposits located onshore renewables easier, use fewer toxics, and transition to
at moderate depth, that were cheap to tap. With few renewable resources for most purposes, especially for
exceptions, geologists no longer find such deposits. The energy. Once the transition is accomplished, we’ll no longer
industry focuses instead on deepwater oil, arctic oil, be vulnerable to the economic and environmental
bitumen, and ‘tight oil’ that’s produced by fracking. consequences of non-renewable resource depletion, such as
These resources are more climate change and pollution. Wind and solar power is
expensive to extract and bring often cheaper than electricity from fossil fuels, and the
“WE EXTRACT worse ecological impacts, public overwhelmingly favours renewables and recycling.
including spills in the Opportunity waits, but not forever.
AND CONSUME environment and the
consumption of other resources HAVE YOUR SAY
RESOURCES AT
PHOTOS: GETTY X2, THE BEAM MAGAZINE ANY PREVIOUS energy to produce this oil, so it x
(for example, water and sand for
fracking). Plus it takes more
FAR HIGHER
yields less net energy for
society. Meanwhile, the oil
RATES THAN
Who do you agree with? Get in touch on
industry’s profits are declining
our Twitter page @sciencefocus, or send
and its debts are soaring. From
the industry’s perspective, the
an email to reply@sciencefocus.com
solution would be higher
CIVILISATION”
prices, but high oil prices

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