[Alberta's Child]

I'd be interested to see if anyone can provide evidence of a specific case in which the world "ran out of" any raw material or commodity.

[battlecry]

Dodos, right?

[SierraWasp]

"if anyone can provide evidence"

Precisely!!!

[Mac94]

The issue isn't "running out," as it is a supply and demand issue. The world isn't goona run out of oil, at least for a long, long, long time. But have we hit a time when we just cannot meet demand anymore. Can the world keep increading production to meet the growing demand across the globe? If demand keeps rising and production levels off or falls, prices will rise and rise alot. And, let's face it, we as a nation, are dependent on oil. As the cost of oil goes, so goes the cost of everything in this country.

[cogitator]

I'd be interested to see if anyone can provide evidence of a specific case in which the world "ran out of" any raw material or commodity.

Do you define a specific species of fish -- a "fishery" using the accepted term -- as a commodity?

[BullDog108]

I'd be interested to see if anyone can provide evidence of a specific case in which the world "ran out of" any raw material or commodity.

Sperm whale oil, two centuries ago. They hunted them to near extinction, and the price of the oil to light lamps got way too expensive. Electricity came online about that same time, preventing a "catastrophe".

[richardtavor]

We definitely ran out of $10 oil in this country. Saudi Arabia is the only one left with $10 oil. Lots of $50 oil left though.

[Zavien Doombringer]

Didn't most of the Texas wells dry up? I mean, is there still drilling in Pennsylvania where oil was first discovered?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I'd be interested to see if anyone can provide evidence of a specific case in which the world "ran out of" any raw material or commodity.

"Oy! G'day Bruce! Did ya know we've run outta Dodo bird feathers?"

[Final Authority]

We do not run out of aluminum or iron, for example, because they are not energy but substances which can neither be made or destroyed, only scattered through entropic processes. Given enough energy, all of the aluminum and iron every produced can be formed again into pure metals.

The problem with stored energy, petroleum, is that under current understanding, the earth is making it much slower than it is being extracted. At some point in time, although we will never technically be "out of" petroleum, the price and availability will be such that for the economy to maintain itself another primary form of stored energy and subsequent energy conversion technology will or must exist.

[chipengineer]

How about whale oil?