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Sustainable Energy and Mineral Resource Extraction and Consumption—Can a Viable Biosphere Be Preserved?

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Mining, Society, and a Sustainable World

Abstract

Modern societies have utilized fossil energy, water, and most other Earth materials at consumption rates far exceeding those of planetary replenishment. The well-known collapse of isolated island communities shows that overexploitation of the environment ultimately ends in disaster. It is now apparent that humanity must reach a steady-state stewardship of the Earth employing efficient, universal mineral resource recovery, recycling, substitution, dematerialization, and conservation. The goal of consumption of renewable resources at or below recharge rates and near-total recycling of non-renewable Earth materials can only be achieved employing universally available, inexpensive energy. However, the Second Law of Thermodynamics dictates that a part of the nonrenewable mineral resource base and most of the spent energy are irretrievably lost as entropy increase. Research-pioneered technological advances leading to the production and ubiquitous availability of environmentally benign, cheap energy will be required in order to reach the sustainable utilization of mineral resources. The principal, virtually unlimited, renewable energy sources appear to be solar and fusion power.

Assuming technical, economic, and political success in achieving universal equity and a comfortable standard of living for the World population, the global ecosystem will be severely impacted by the increased human consumption of Earth materials, reflecting environmental modification attending resource extraction and consumption. The dynamic biospheric equilibrium and ecosystem viability—the carrying capacity of the planet—is deteriorating and is increasingly at risk. Thus, the greatest long-term challenge facing humanity is not global climate change, or even the required transformation to renewable, cheap energy systems, but the necessity of preserving a healthy, sustainable biosphere.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    By early 2008, the American population exceeded 303 million (U.S. Census Bureau 2008) and very likely the utilization of resources has risen commensurately.

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Acknowledgments

This paper represents an update of a prior synthesis (Ernst 2002) prepared for an American Geophysical Union symposium entitled “Sustainability of Earth Resources.” Stanford University has supported my ongoing research. Brian Skinner, F.W. Wellmer, and Jeremy Richards reviewed this revised, updated manuscript. I thank the above institutions and scientists for their support and constructive feedback.

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  1. Department of Geological and Environmental Science, Stanford University, 94305-2115, Stanford, CA, USA

    W.G. Ernst

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  1. Dept. Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Earth Sciences Bldg. 1-26, Edmonton, T6G 2E3, Canada

    Jeremy Richards

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Ernst, W. (2009). Sustainable Energy and Mineral Resource Extraction and Consumption—Can a Viable Biosphere Be Preserved?. In: Richards, J. (eds) Mining, Society, and a Sustainable World. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01103-0_6

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