Article - Introduction to Sustainability: Resource Planning and Global Change by J.F. KENNEDY and M.K. HUBBERT

Question-

1. What is a geologic resource, according to the discussion in Geologic Resources?

2. Name one renewable and one nonrenewable geologic resource.

3. If you knew the current rate of production of a mineral resource from a mine, what additional information would you need to determine the remaining lifetime of the mine (number of years until it is exhausted)?

4. According to Brobst and Pratt (Figure IV.1), what is the difference(s) between hypothetical and speculative mineral resources?

5. Would a mining company be likely to extract conditional resources? Explain.

6. If you owned a gold mine that could produce gold at a profit only if the price were equal to or greater than $800/ounce, what would happen to your reserves if the price went to $600 per ounce?

7. What are the five Cornucopian Premises, according to Preston Cloud?

8. Hubbert, in 1956, forecast the peak in US. oil production would occur in 1970 and it did. Assuming the total world oil resource is 2,100 billion barrels, when should we peak in world oil production, according to Hubbert (Figure IV.2)?

9. In Figure IV.2, the production rate is given in billion barrels per year. If we were producing a steady 5 billion barrels per year, how much would we use in 25 years?

10. Using the literature or other sources, determine the current daily and annual rates of oil production for the world.

11. What impact will "peak oil" have on the U.S.A.?