Steven Pinker on resource shortages

From Cafe Hayek.

"from page 127 of Steven Pinker’s excellent 2018 volume, Enlightenment Now (footnote deleted):

    When predictions of apocalyptic resource shortages repeatedly fail to come true, one has to conclude either that humanity has miraculously escaped from certain death again and again like a Hollywood action hero or that there is a flaw in the thinking that predicts apocalyptic resource shortages. The flaw has been pointed out many times. Humanity does not suck resources from the earth like a straw in a milkshake until a gurgle tells it that the container is empty. Instead, as the most easily extracted supply of a resource becomes scarce, its price rises, encouraging people to conserve it, get at the less accessible deposits, or find cheaper and more plentiful substitutes."