Currently, our main source of energy comes from fossil fuels and nuclear power. Without the both of them, the world will be without an energy source suddenly. This could lead to conflicts all around the world. Oil is predicted to run out within the next 40 years and uranium within the next hundred. Uranium, unlike oil, is not being used worldwide due to the risk and lack of technology. Thus, if oil was to run out, our next alternative would be natural gas. Natural gas, however, would need to be liquefied in order to be transported to power plants. This leads to further wasting of energy. In addition, shortly after the depletion of oil, natural gas will also begin to run out within 30 years. This would finally lead to the massive use of our last resort, coal. Coal is not only destructive for the environment from its mining and disposal, collecting coal is extremely risky. Explosions due to the mines’ highly explosive possibilities and poisonous gas exposure can and is already leading to deaths of many people especially in poorer places. Also, coal mining is a main cause of child workers in places such as India. Thus, if we do not find substitutes soon, resource demand will be the cause of our end.
Substitutes to solve our demand for natural resources lie greatly on the research of renewable resources, mainly: hydropower, wind power, and solar power. Hydropower is basically using water to generate power. The use of watermills has been existent for centuries and by the 1900s, large-scale dams have been created. The main issue with hydropower is the limited places to build them and the environmental impact of creating them. Unless we find small-scale power plants to collect power of waves from the ocean or rivers, hydropower remains impossible to supply for the majority of the world. Wind power is cheap, easy/fast to build, and is a free resource! Wind power is quite popular in countries such as Denmark which has 20% of their electricity from windmills. However, the main problem with windmills is geography as not every place on Earth has large amounts of wind. Also, it takes away large amounts of land to supply enough electricity. Finally, surprisingly, wind power is a huge cause of death for birds and bats. 600,000 or more bats are killed each year by wind turbines due to the suction created. Finally, there is solar power. Theoretically speaking, solar power is by far the most efficient as 1 hour of sunlight absorbed from around the world is enough to supply for 1 year for all human beings. Due to technological and financial issues however, solar power is still not a viable solution. Only around 20% of it is absorbed today and there is also limited space and funding to place enough solar power plants. There is one last hidden alternative: nuclear fusion. Research for nuclear fusion has come more to light in the past decade. France has a large underground facility trying to create a stable nuclear fusion power source. If we are able to control nuclear fusion, that will be like creating a miniature sun on Earth and solve our energy demands forever.
Now that we see how large an issue human demand for natural resources is, we can focus on how the others can be solved or decreased with the help of resources. First, poverty has been a major issue worldwide basically since the idea of money came up. Poverty today is focused mainly in Asia and Africa. However, without resources to power their economy, poverty will destroy the countries that are trying to help the impoverished countries today. The United States and Europe would be left in ruins. This would mean all humankind would suffer from poverty. Also, if we are to solve poverty today, human demands for resources will increase eleven fold. That would call for several other Earths are needed. Also, with a constant supply of resources, humans have been advancing technologically for the past century at an immense speed. Soon, we will be able to reach the singularity in which the computer will be more powerful than the human brain. Thus, mechanical bees would help solve the issue with dying bees. Finally, climate change, an issue discovered since the late-1800s, can also be solved with resources. New discoveries have shown greenhouse gas-eating bacteria. Although the downsides are unclear, trial tests and experimentation on functioning factories should be able to help solve the issue of the atmospheric ratio. It is obvious there must be a way for us to control it or else the Earth will simply be too cold, but the bacteria offer a promising solution in the future. The points above all show the importance of solving the human demand on natural resources. Without our natural resources, we will cease to exist.