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Geodestinies: The Inevitable Influence of Earth Resources on Nations and Individuals
Author: Walter Lewellyn Youngquist

Cover: cover
Pages: 500
List Price: $29.95
Published by National Book Company
ISBN: 0894202995


Summary

SOCIOLOGISTS: Mineral and energy sources and supplies determine lifestyles and support social structures of societies. Societies built on non-renewable resources have a tenuous future. Important social legacies are left from mineral exploitation.

GEOLOGISTS: Where is the search for energy and minerals today? How is the world Earth resource base changing? What new roles will alternative energy sources play?

ECOLOGISTS: The environmental impact of mineral and energy production now. Effects of alternative energy development on the environment. Population and the environment. Conservation of non-renewable resources - for whom?

ECONOMISTS: Huge transfer of the industrial world's money to the Persian Gulf region; its effects on the world banking system, and international balances of payments. How the resource wealth of each nation directs its economy domestically and internationally. Prospects for renewable resources as a basis for a "sustainable economy." "Growth" - for how long?

POLICYMAKERS, PLANNERS, FUTURISTS: The Twentieth Century was unique in its exponential use of Earth resources. It cannot be duplicated again against the demands of huge population growth. How long will we have enough to go around? What solutions might exist?

POLITICAL SCIENTISTS: International relations and alliances as determined by competition for mineral and energy resources - the Persian Gulf War example. Russia is mineral rich but needs western technology - how this affects its policies. Japan's foreign policy is based on a critical need for raw materials. The economic rise of Southeast Asia and China - their increasing demands for energy and minerals, and probable future impacts.

This unique volume provides essential data on energy and mineral resources and population issues including:

  • World petroleum reserves. How long will they last?
  • World trends in the use of two most vital materials: water and soil
  • Current myths and realities about energy and mineral resources
  • Future prospects for balancing resources to population, lifestyles, living standards, and the environment
  • Conflicts over resources
  • The realistic possibilities for alternative energy sources to replace oil
  • Minerals and health
  • Minerals and war ... and economic warfare
  • World trade and strategic minerals

A comprehensive bibliography for each chapter adds further reading suggestions for all topics.

Quotes from GeoDestinies

"The question of conserving mineral and energy resources ... is one which cannot easily be answered. We conserve these resources for whom? And for how long?" Chapter 23

"NO other material has so profoundly and universally changed the world in so short a time as has oil." Chapter 12

"At present, we are living on a great mineral resource inheritance. We must begin to live on current income ..." Chapter 22

"... a major and increasing cause of human migration is the exhaustion of natural resources." Chapter 2

"Water, for which there is no substitute, may be the ultimate limiting factor in the growth of world population." Chapter 15

"The great hope is that alternative energy sources will be found to gradually fill the void left by diminishing oil supplies." Chapter 12

"It takes a one-ton lead-acid battery to give an electric car the same energy as a gallon of gasoline." Chapter 14

"Using corn to produce ethanol as a fuel makes no economic, energy efficiency, environmental, nor ethical sense." Chapter 14

"... worldwide, land degradation is proceeding much above the rate of soil replacement." Chapter 17

"... most of the world's oil will have been consumed in a period of less than one lifetime ..." Chapter 12