The historical issue of natural resources scarcity is revived currently through the empirical investigation into the dependence of modern economy on the inputs of material and energy. The contemporary debate on de-growth and a-growth feeds on the empirical assessments of the relationship between...

Peak oil theory predicts that oil production will soon start a terminal decline. Most authors imply that no adequate alternate resource and technology will be available to replace oil as the backbone resource of industrial society. This article uses historical cases from countries that have gone...