An Infinite Supply of Finite Resources

Abstract

On a crisp and breezy October morning, with school canceled due to a teachers’ conference, I slept later than usual. My father had left for the day, forgetting to leave behind his customary list of tasks to be completed before his return. Attending to my chores, I fed the cattle from a large mound of loose hay accumulated over the summer. Not wanting to remind my mother I would be home all day (and risk prompting her to generate a list of tasks), I lingered in the barnyard, then climbed atop the haystack.

Our civilization runs by burning the remains of humble creatures who inhabited the Earth hundreds of millions of years before the first humans came on the scene.

— Carl Sagan