Scarcity, energy, and economic progress

Book · Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1977

OSTI ID:6193125

Banks, F E

The book begins by considering the economics of natural resource availability or unavailability. Economists seem to agree that there will be more than enough natural resources available at acceptable prices to maintain the present generation, and most likely its immediate successors, in at least the comfort to which they have become accustomed. What happens after that depends upon decisions that must be made soon, preferably very soon. As it happens, these decisions concern such things as mineral extraction rates at only second remove. First and foremost they have to do with increasing both the technical and economic efficiency with which natural resources are used in industry and consumption. If progress in this direction cannot be accelerated, and it remains expedient to promote the fantasy that the entire world has the right to a North American standard of living, then we are on a collision course with disaster. One of the major difficulties of dealing with resource availability is the popularity of the more extremist views on the subject, but on the other hand, the optimists are hardly providing us with a better quality of research or information, either. Following an overview and summary chapter, the chapter titles are: Energy and its Torments; Political Economy of Primary Commodities; Some Aspects of the Problem of Economic Growth: Money, Multinational Firms, Commodities, and Inflation; Nonfuel Minerals; Environment, Population, and Food; Some Comments on the Antidoomsday Models; The Econometrics of Primary Commodities.

• OSTI ID: 6193125
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
ENERGY SOURCES
CHARGES
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
RESOURCE DEPLETION
AVAILABILITY
CARTELS
COMMODITIES
DEMAND FACTORS
ECONOMETRICS
ECONOMICS
ENERGY SHORTAGES
ENVIRONMENT
GLOBAL ASPECTS
GRAPHS
INFLATION
NORTH AMERICA
OPEC
PETROLEUM
POLLUTION
RAW MATERIALS
RECYCLING
STANDARD OF LIVING
TABLES
DATA FORMS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
292000* - Energy Planning & Policy- Supply
Demand & Forecasting
290200 - Energy Planning & Policy- Economics & Sociology