Geologists doubt Earth has the amount of copper needed to develop the entire world

By Eric Ralls – earth.com

Every buzzing phone call, every late-night lamp glow, every mile an electric car glides down the highway has one thing in common: they’re all powered by copper.

The rosy metal hides in cables, motors, chargers, even inside the walls that keep the lights on. As more people are born and more households plug in, electricity use ratchets upward, and copper demand climbs right alongside it.

That rising appetite poses a dilemma. Global supplies can cover roughly a quarter-century of today’s needs, yet digging ore out of the ground, refining it, and moving it to market is anything but swift.