When can we expect big international consequenses due to lack of these materials?

Question

Oil
Drinkable water
Wood
Coal
Copper

"Big international consequenses" defined as either large scale death, war etc, or having to change to alternative materials.

Answer 1

How about today. Oil just hit $75.40/barrel for the first time. Oil scarcity is starting to have some big consequences they are:

1) $3.00 + per gallon at the pump. An SUV can cost $90 to fill up, which I thing is hilarious, sorry SUV drivers, since I drive a Prius and get 500 miles on $30 worth of gas. The big impact here is on our economy. High energy prices are starting to have an inflationary effect and it is also cutting into consumer buying power. That has a lot to do with why the stock market has been acting like the proverbial "long-tailed cat in a rocking chair factory".

2) International competition for oil sources. You may or may not have been following this but India and especially China have been working hard all over the world to secure a supply of oil. They are good buddies with Iran for instance because Iran has a lot of oil. Venezuela and Nigeria also are being courted by China because of their oil. This is starting to ruffle feathers in Washington because Venezuela is one of our biggest oil suppliers and if the switch to being China's biggest oil supplier ... How do you spell war? If you spelled it "O I L" you get a prize.

3) The war in Iraq. $450,000,000,000 of our tax dollars at work and no they are not fighting terrorists they are attempting to secure our oil supply. Who thinks we would be in Iraq if they had no oil. A show of hands. You all get dunce caps.

The others you list are also important, water in particular.

Was anyone aware that Enron's other big play was in water? That should tell you something about its growing scarcity. Robber Barron's do not go for commodities that are common as dirt.

Answer 2

Water is the most abundant resource on our planet. The U.S. alone has a 300 year supply of coal reserves. There is a 30 year supply of oil. Resources may become scarce but technology will prevail. Before the internal combustion engine people were worried about how there would ever be enough horses for the estimated population in 100 years, and what to do with all the horse s h i t. That was only 100 years ago and look where we are now. Don't let people scare you into thinking there's going to be some sort of world wide chaos, technological advances are happening, just because you can't see them taking over does not mean they are not rapidly advancing.

Answer 3

Try "decades or centuries ago".  People have been fleeing areas of drought for as long as we have recorded history, and the high cost of copper long since drove the makers of high-voltage transmission lines to use aluminum with steel cores.  All kinds of different materials were proposed to replace copper plumbing.  Even Farberware switched from copper to aluminum for their cooking pans!

Of course, things change.  When optical fibers hit the market, they were cheaper to install and maintain than the scrap value of some existing lead-clad copper cables!  The lead and copper scrap from those cables drove the price of copper down for quite a while, but now they're all gone.

Answer 4

We can expect big international consequences once they run out and are depleted. And not any time before that.

Answer 5

within next 10 to 15 years. i am serious. its scary but true.