The past is past as will be the present shortly. Demand for just about everything will increase as time moves forward barring something major.

It is reasonable to assume costs per individual may accelerate beyond increases in income for the vast majority. Actual lack of availability is also a possibility as well.

Some people will change lifestyles and others will resist. Part of life is actually living through the changes and adjusting. I suspect we already generallly do this anyways. The only thing certain is change after all.

Man has been fully cognizant that natural resources of many types are limited but acts in general like they are not. We seem not even able to sustain the fisheries on a world wide level with todays population.

I am not sure of the politics but fishing was seriously curtailed many years ago in our area. The fish population seems unable to rebound. This was not an expected outcome. I still see it as a danger sign that for whatever reason nature is not as predictable as we thought. It seems almost that once a critical mass has been reduced to less than a certain level the normal expected repacement activity seems to cease.

Same with lumbering. It is good the demand currently is not too high as almost everything to harvest is gone. The replanting was just lip service with no really serious attempt to replace what is harvested.

Man seems to have developed more technology than common sense. He still wants to take everything he can with no thought of the future. Many natural resouce dependant companies have already closed up operations for lack of raw materials.

The country that gets a clearer picture of the future and acts accordingly should in general do better. I personally would like to see north america take the lead. Right now it looks more like a state of denial exists instead and will be hard to turn around. For example Canada and the United States share the great lakes. One of the largest available bodies of freshwater in the world. The polution levels just seem to rise and rise. The current thinking is it can be reversed when it becomes a requirement to do so. What if it will not respond? We may be playing with dynamite over the medium haul even. The reduction of availability of even common natural resources may be felt sooner than later now. I am not an eco freak but do see that we are counting on too many things based on older understandings. These understanding may prove badly flawed.