For the first time since the oil shocks of the 1970s, many people in the Western world are asking questions about the physical availability of goods that we have taken for granted for decades. It is also becoming clear once again that our prosperity is based not only on bits and bytes, but also on oil, gas, copper and wheat.
The challenges posed by the scarcity of natural resources are cyclical and almost as old as humanity itself. With the debate on energy transition, the impact on inflation, the emergence of new conflicts, geopolitical shifts and the limits to growth, the role of resources in politics and economics has taken on a new importance. Security of supply and the functioning of supply chains have come to the fore. The scarcity of natural resources is certainly a burden for consuming countries. But for producer countries too, natural resources are often more of a curse than a blessing.
Many questions arise in this renewed debate about the role of resources: Are we witnessing the last conflict over oil and gas, or is this just the beginning of a new series of disputes over natural resources? What is a green geopolitics? How finite are so-called finite resources? Are the limits of the human race to be found in its limited ideas or in its limited raw materials? Or, put simply, to what extent do we live in a material world?
