"There is Enough and To Spare"

Quotation of the day on the ‘scarcity fallacy’ ….

Mark J. Perry | April 27, 2014, 12:08 am

… is from Matt Ridley, writing in today’s WSJ (“The World’s Resources Aren’t Running Out“):

Until about 10 years ago, it was reasonable to expect that natural gas might run out in a few short decades and oil soon thereafter. If that were to happen, agricultural yields would plummet, and the world would be faced with a stark dilemma: Plow up all the remaining rain forest to grow food, or starve.

But thanks to fracking and the shale revolution, peak oil and gas have been postponed. They will run out one day, but only in the sense that you will run out of Atlantic Ocean one day if you take a rowboat west out of a harbor in Ireland. Just as you are likely to stop rowing long before you bump into Newfoundland, so we may well find cheap substitutes for fossil fuels long before they run out.

The God of heaven has decreed: 

For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves.
Therefore, if any man shall take of the abundance which I have made, and impart not his portion, according to the law of my gospel, unto the poor and the needy, he shall, with the wicked, lift up his eyes in hell, being in torment.  (D&C 104:17-18).

The problem has always been men's greed, not ample provisions made by the Creator.

T. Boone Pickens

T. Boone Pickens has been leading the charge for natural gas development in this country for many years. Turns out he wasn't just taking a wild flyer on a speculative outcome - this article calls energy development "the MVP" of the American economy. Seems Pickens is very optimistic about the future:

"We have about a 100- to 200-year supply of natural gas. Producers should be allowed to sell their natural gas where they can, but as a nation we should be actively seeking ways to utilize it right here: As feedstock for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, for transportation, electricity generation, and industrial applications. Let’s rebuild America’s economy on the back of our cheap, plentiful energy, not use it to protect Europe or Asia’s economy."