Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-05-19


firm the belief that he will be sun such
as he is now for millions of years yet to
come.
Now, when we consider these vast peri
DDS which in the earth's case certainly
| and in the suns case probably, separate us
from the end of the possibilities of life, so
far as they depend ON the condition Of the
earth or on the emission of light and heat
upon the earth, what opinion are we to
form in regard to the future of the human
race as depending upon the action of that
race itself? Certain that the earth will be
tit home for us during millions of years
| to come, unless the sun should in the
meanwhile die out, and almost certain
that the sun will neither die out nor sud.
denly blaze forth with such increased fer
yer as to destroy all life from the earth's
surface, let us consider to the necessities Of
human life in its higher developments
and inquire how far they are provided for
and In what way man is using the supplies
thus available for him.
Man, like the lower animals, can live
on the earth without employing the
earth'S buried stores. But even savage
races do not SO live. Among the tools
which even the lowest races Of men EN-.
ploy are some which have been obtained
from the earth by man, not brought forth
by sun-power from the soil. Even stone
| implements may be described as taken
from the earth's stores. Where metal is
used the case is clearer, and it is more
obvious that a process of exhaustion is
involved, seeing that metal once used foi
making tool of any sort is on its way tc
being used up. 1t does not, indeed, revert
to condition chemically less favorable
for use than before it was fashioned into a
tool; but its parts are gradually dispersed
IN such sort that they cannot he brought
together again for renewed use This pro.
cess OF exhaustion is not worth considering
in the case Of savage races, though it seri.
ously affects, in many instances, the sup,
plies available to them, insomuch that
they watch with great care the few tools
they have occasion to fashion. But when
we turn to the work of civilized races, we
see that the exhaustion of the earth's
stores of minerals is going on very rapidly
1t is not merely that the absolute quantity
OF the earth's mineral wealth used IN
yearly by civilized races is large; but that
the proportion of this annual consumption
to the entire store is extravagant, in view
| OF the length of time over which the store
ought to last, unless the future of our race
| is to be much briefer than we have asy
reason to expect.
| Let us take mans use of the earth's
buried stores of coal and oil as illustra.
tons Of the process of exhaustion.
1t has been estimated that beneath the
earth's crust there lie about 5000, 900. 600.
600 cubic yards of coal at depths rendering
| them available for the use of MANN
round numbers this would be a little over
100000, 100000 tons of coal. Of this
store Great Britain has, available for use
about fiftieth part, OR more exactly, ac.
cording to the best estimates, $4,000 mill.
ions of tons. This is an exceptionally
large supply for an area so small. YET
Great Britain, which has not yet reached
either the fullness of its growth or the full
development of its civilization, consume.
already each year more than $50 million.
OF tons OF coal, rate of consumption
which would fully exhaust her store in .
little over 900 years-a mere second com.
pared with the duration of man on the
earth in the past. Thus people which
may be regarded as typical OF
modern civilization, supplied by ma
ture with a hundred times more
wealth in coal than the area Of
their country would entitle them to ex.
pect are spending their share of this form
of buried wealth (really buried life al
such rate that the exhaustion of the re.
gion they occupy will be completed in
less than thousandth part of even thai
| period IA million years. which science re-
CARDS as the time-unit by which the earth's
| future is to be measured. Itisno likely that
any other region of the earth will remain
much longer stored with coal than Great
Britain. Elsewhere there are immense
supplies, and as yet where these large sup
plies exist the human race is not so closely
crowded as it is in Great Britain; but
wherever the earth is thus well stored the
population is growing in density, and at
rates showing that in less than two centu.
rles the population per square mile will be
greater than in England So far as coal is
concerned, the outlook is that the earth.
buried stores will be entirely exhausted in
less than 1000 years.
If we remember that the consumption OF
coal is an index of the rate at which other
mineral stores are being exhausted, that
coal is not merely being used in the direct
work OF civilization, but in procuring the
materials by which that work is continued,
We cannot fail TO see that other portions of
the earth's stored wealth must be under
going 4 process of rapid exhaustion. Asa
matter of fact all other forms of stored
wealth are being exhausted at spendthrift
rates many are being exhausted far more
| rapidly even than coal, and some are being
exhausted so rapidly that their future
duration may be counted by years rather
than by centuries.
Among the last class may he mentioned
coal oil. The stores of coal oil beneath
certain parts of the earth's crust were
millions of years in the gathering. But
where greedy man sets to work to get
wealth from them (for that has been the
first consideration heretofore in working
the oil regions), barely a generation has
passed before they have begun to show
signs of exhaustion. The most sanguine
surveyors of the richer ard buster oil re-
gions do not look forward to half a CEN
fury of supply at the rate at which these
regions have been worked in the last
twenty years.
1t is saddening for those who look back
over the past of life to consider that man.
the first creature to live Understandings
upon the earth, man, the heir of all the
ages, should be living thus as spendthrirt,
exhausting selfishly stores left to him, as
ii were, in trust for the race not for few
generations only. But when we consider
further that not merely large, but by far
the largest part of this wasteful expendi-
ture is devoted to the construction of de
structive implements, which are but en-
Engagements and ampliications many times
multiplied Of the stabbing, slashing
and smashing weapons of the despised saw
age, or making defensive apparatus flor
safer Strengthening, bien intendu, not to save
life as life, which is but development on
much enlarged scale of the savage. hide
bound shield, our thoughts are divided be-
tween regret that the human race
should be so wasteful of the means of
life, and feeling of doubt whether.
after all, the race, regarded as a
whole, is quite so worthy of long duration
as some which have lasted longest in past
struggles. Reasoning beings have been
wondering that in civilized communities
attention should be given to man be-
cause he chances to be nearly as strong
and quite as brutal az bulldog or the
Tasmania devil, and almost as quick in
the use of his limbs as panther or cata-
mount. Yet what wonder that man should
4 l.