ABSTRACT
Information about global mineral deposits is generally less comprehensive than data on global energy reserves. This is probably because the depletion scenarios applicable to many of the minerals used in modern industrial processes. There is a strong case to be made that energy derived from natural resources–the main topic in contemporary resource depletion analysis–also constitutes the chief interface between business and environmentalism. Some factors affecting the future of energy supplies are specific to this one topic. Others relate to long-term societal trends where the availability of power is taken for granted–an assumption that is likely to evaporate as the effects of resource depletion hit home. At a more practical level, companies are complicit in the depletion of wood resources when they purchase products associated with unsustainable forestry practices. Humans have used wood for millennia for a variety of purposes: as biomass to be burned for heating or power purposes; as material for construction and to make products like paper.
