Right. The problem is failure to account for external costs, not any absolute shortage of productive resources per se. So the issue is less conservation than it is altering output to reflect external costs, either by dreams of socialism or by mundane, practical schemes like taxes, emission permits, etc.
> . . .
> In short, the world ain't gonna run out of oil for some time to
> come.
Even so, there's still quite a bit of coal and nuclear out there.
> assuming democracy triumphs and the world responds rationally to global
> warming and similar problems, we can expect to see the "greening"
> of the tax
> system, a general trend away from fossil fuels, and a further reduction in
> petro prices.
I'd expect that pollution effects will stimulate such action long before global warming's effects are sufficiently manifest to force action. Assuming g.w. is not a crock to begin with.
Sweatin',
MBS