Larry Spencer: Capitalism is doomed because of finite natural resources

To The Daily Sun,

Many of the contributors to the 'Letters to the Editor' section of The Laconia Daily Sun tout the benefits of capitalism, but fail to realize that capitalism is an economic system doomed to extinction. The reasons for its doom are related to the fact that the Earth is essentially a closed system, which means for the most part that the materials we use to provide the energy for the engine of our economy are finite. Once they are gone, they are gone. The best examples of one category of these resources (energy) are oil and natural gas.

Oil and natural gas are essentially ancient organic remains that have been subjected to heat and pressure to change their chemical makeup. In most cases these organic remains were laid down many millions of years ago. Much of the Middle East, many millions of years ago, was under the waters of the Tethys Sea and as time progressed, the organic matter that fell out of the upper layers of the sea was covered over by geologic deposits and then these were later subjected to metamorphism to form oil that is now being extracted today in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries.

This idea relates to the concept of “Peak Oil,” a concept promoted many years ago by the geophysicist, M. King Hubert. Although he was off in terms of the year that the peak would occur, it still will occur. Fracking and oil shales may have pushed the peak into the future, but none-the-less, it will still occur. Moving over to the use of renewable, will put the peak even further into the future and this might be a real benefit, as we can then use the products for materials that can’t be made easily from other base materials.

Although we can synthetically make both oil and natural gas, to do so requires energy inputs. At this time the processes are like those of making ethanol from corn, where the energy content of the ethanol is less than the energy taken to make It (remember, the farmer has to plow the field, plant the seeds, spray herbicides and pesticides, spread fertilizer, harvest the corn, transport the grain to the point of departure from the community, all of which use energy).

Who today doesn’t use an iPhone or Android phone? Who today doesn’t have a PC, Mac or Linux computer? Who today doesn’t have an iPad or Kindle? All of these devices use small amount of materials called “rare earths” and today the Chinese has solidified their control of many of the sources of these rare earths. And where does the energy to run these devices come from? Mostly from batteries containing lithium. Although lithium is a fairly common element, the quantities need to energize our devices continues to grow almost exponentially.

Because of length limitations, I will continue my thoughts in another letter.

Larry Spencer

Plymouth