Thank you.

I was referring specifically to elements found naturally on the Earth, but my wording was unclear. By pointing out a bunch of other things that I was not referring to, you have helped clarify the issue.

Don't really want to do a rebuttal. I did learn some things about cryolite this morning. Here's a good article for those looking to dig deeper. (apologies for the pun)

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/20...

To date, relatively few actual _mineral_ resources have been exhaustd. Cryolite was also a bit of a surprise for me, though I think I've run across mention of it before.

The more general trend, that it's been ecosystem resources, especially animal and plant extinctions, sometimes localized, which are more comonly encountered, suggests the risks we're facing are more likely systemic than strictly one of stocks.

I disagree with the general suggestion of your Slate reference that resource consumption is no longer a concern. Though economists specifically are rather divorced from reality.

Are you sure about forests in Europe?

Yes, in the sense that prior to the use of coal, forests were being used unsustainably and, frequently, exhausted.

At the time of the American Revolution, England relied on its American colonies for lumber, fuelwood, turpentine (derived from pine pitch), and other forestry products. It wasn't able to provision its own ships let alone fuel supplies, absent these.

Forests have recovered in Europe over the past 100-150 years, but that's almost entirely due to offloading fuel supplies to coal, oil, and gas.

Among the problems prompted by Greece's credit crisis is a renewal of woodburning, creating both air quality problems and deforestation:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/greece-financial-crisis-high-fue...

In the US, quality lumber is becoming difficult to find:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Construction/comments/389q25/lumber...