/sci/ - Science & Math

[ae†her No.3132107]

What's the most important resource on our planet?

[Anonymous No.3132123]

Human potential

[Anonymous No.3132131]

Uranium

[Anonymous No.3132133]

oxygen, we would probably die if we didn't have that.

[Anonymous No.3132136]

If important means indispensable to life, then water.

[Anonymous No.3132140]

Children.

You scoff now, but we'll see who's laughing when the extraterrestrial pedovores arrive.

[Anonymous No.3132141]

inb4 aether expertly milks summer-/sci/entists for lulz

[Anonymous No.3134535]

igneous rocks!

[Anonymous No.3134541]

Regions and materials of low entropy

[almostphysicist No.3134543]

>>3132107
Define important.

[Anonymous No.3134555]

Biomass.

Without it you wouldn't exist and you wouldn't have food to eat. Even though its abundant all over the planet, most of it is not fit for human consumption.

[Anonymous No.3134567]

perforated condoms and facebook

[Anonymous No.3134571]

Religion.

[Anonymous No.3134577]

>>3132140

i read that in spanish.

[Anonymous No.3134591]

are you guys serious?

Petroleum. and not even because of energy, though that adds to its importance.


Petroleum is the basic material in absolutely 100% of industrial processes.

everything from titanium smelting to Haber Bosch ammonia production requires the input or use of various petrochemical derived materials at some point in the process (or some precursor for that process requires a petrochemical, etc).

I have not even mentioned the ubiquitous nature of plastic and pharmaceuticals and food chemicals.

[Anonymous No.3134592]

Air is nice.

Energy even more so. If we didn't have energy we'd be fucked.

[Anonymous No.3134594]

water.

[almostphysicist No.3134604]

I SAID DEFINE IMPORTANT

[The_Magician !TvNZI.MfJE No.3134602]

copper and iron

[Anonymous No.3134605]

>>3134591
makes you wonder why they haven't perfected synthesizing petroleum products yet, considering that the natural supply is finite

[Anonymous No.3134610]

>>3134605
Because the natural supply is sufficient to meet demands, and that means nobody gives a damn about alternatives.

Humans are lazy.

[Anonymous No.3134627]

>>3134610
so they first use up all petrol and then lack the energy to develope an alternative or synthetics and get stuck in pre-industrial times forever

way to go

[almostphysicist No.3134629]

No one else sees the ambiguity in OP's question?

Important for what? Basic survival? Civilization? Scientific progress? Continuation of human life? Continuation of life in general?

[Anonymous No.3134634]

>>3134605


because its a coupled system.

it takes energy to produce petrochemicals from non-petroleum based materials like biomass or carbon dioxide (carbon based materials).

that energy comes from petroleum, coal, or natural gas (all of which are raw materials for the petrochemicals I referred to in my other post).


even when we "run out" of cheap petroluem/natty gas, we will still be able to afford to extract hard, non-price competitive petroleum/gas for use as raw feedstock for industrial chemistry.


it is unlikely we will ever run out of any natural resource in the lifespan of the relevant technology (eg: we will not run out of petrolum or natural gas until long after alternative technologies are developed to replace them).


people scream and cry about just about every supposed "shortage" in supply. Dont believe the "black and white" argument.

the earth is extremely rich in natural resources. it just costs more money to extract the hard stuff.

the same can be said for rare earth elements like Hafnium (which is vital for high performance semiconductors), rhenium (high performance turbine blades: superalloys), Indium (transparent contact material in displays), etc.

there is a supposed "shortage" of these materials, but it is only because China flooded the market during the 1980s and 1990s with Communist supported mining endeavors that shut down alternate mines in Australia and the US.

now that china produces about 50% of the world's semiconductors and electronics (or more), they are clamping down on exports, driving price up, and creating a shortage.

[Anonymous No.3134658]

Coal. Petrol is used for powering things that move, but without coal a large majority of the baseload power (with the exception of stuff that's on nuclear) would be gone. Not to mention our ability to make steel would be severely reduced.

[Anonymous No.3134685]

>>3134634
We consume about 20 million more barrels a day then we produce of oil, besides that oil sands and other sources will not be able to extract at a rate to keep up with consumption, were gonna see a definite decrease in life quality at least.

[Anonymous No.3134684]

time
lrn2economics

[Anonymous No.3134706]

>>3134685


as I pointed out with respect to rare earths and Chinese mining, the economics of petroleum in 2011 make continued petroleum exploration slow.

as prices increase, more and more "new" sites for fracking and other non-traditional extraction techniques will be utilized.

true, cost of energy and living will increase proportional to some complicated equilibrium between technological advancement, subsidization of industry, and changes in legislation (which may increase or decrease costs), but it will be so ridiculously long before we "run out" of petroleum, so that it is too expensive to use it for energy.

[Anonymous No.3134709]

>>3132107
How can you type and grab two cocks at the same time?

[Anonymous No.3134718]

oil

-plastics
-fertilizers
-pesticides
-medicine
-transportation
-heat
-lubrication
-synthetic rubber
-adhesives

[Anonymous No.3134720]

He loves the Cocks?

[Anonymous No.3134734]

He adores the cocks!

[Anonymous No.3134786]

Oil

Take note humans consumption will exceed the production of the following resources in (at most) the next 75 years: Oil, Helium, Lithium, Uranium, Phosphorus, Fresh Water...

The list really goes on, without any of which the world as we know it wouldn't exist. That being said the most important resource we don't have is time.

[Anonymous No.3134791]

existence is the most important resource

[Anonymous No.3134794]

>>3134791
Were you born this retarded or did you have to work at it?