Laboratory Manual for Introductory Geology 4e

EXERCISE 3.9
Mineral Resources in Your State (continued)
Name:
Course:
Section:
Date:
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What Do You Think It took
ancestral humans thousands of years to
progress from the Stone Age to the Copper
Age, and thousands more to reach the Iron
Age. The rate of technological advance today
is astonishingly faster than anything that
those ancestors could have imagined, and
even faster than what we thought possible
only 50 years ago. Electrification of cities
happened only a little more than 100 years
ago, as did the beginnings of air travel. Interplanetary
exploration was science fiction
in the 1960s and 70s. The “two-way wrist
radio” introduced in the Dick Tracy comic
strip in 1946 was considered to be wildly
imaginative fiction—but the cell phone and
Apple Watch are now almost universal.
As technology advances, some materials
that once had no commercial value have
become important resources, and some that
once were important resources now have
no significant economic value. It is hard to
predict what the next “new” resource will be,
but it is possible to understand from recent
experiences the impact of some of these changes. Among recent industrial changes, aluminum studs
are replacing 20 3 40 lumber as the preferred construction material in many modern buildings; copying
machines and chemically treated paper have made carbon paper obsolete (have you seen any
lately?); and incandescent (and soon fluorescent) light bulbs will soon become as extinct as the dodo
or Tyrannosaurus. Graphite fiber is replacing metals in airplane and automobile construction.
Consumers adjust rapidly to these changes, but local economies do not, with thousands losing
their jobs as entire industries become obsolete. Has your community been affected negatively by or
benefited from changes in the demand for natural resources? How has it tried to adjust? What
difference has it made in your life? Answer on a separate sheet of paper.
3.7 MINERALS AND THE ECONOMY
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