| If you take "Western standards" to include resources that are probably limited, such as oil, or atmospheric compost pile, then sure. But this is not how it should be defined. We will not run out of oil in an absolute sense. When it starts getting more scarce we will find alternatives. This process is happening now: high price means relative scarcity. "Western standards" should be taken to mean all the goods that technology and labor afford us. All the bad stuff or potentially bad stuff? We'll work on that and we will find other ways.
"I can't listen to that much Wagner. I start getting the urge to conquer Poland." - Woody Allen |