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C00002 00002		We intellectuals who worry about the long term future of
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	We intellectuals who worry about the long term future of
humanity are engaged in a great debate.
The issue is whether American civilization and American style
civilization can and should continue its material progress.
In general the people who think it shouldn't also think it
can't.  Those who think it should aren't sure that it can.
I think it can, and it should, but I would like to identify
the one major area of uncertainty in whether it can.
This is whether we can develop ways of extracting raw materials
from very low grade ores.

	%3Can the minerals we need for our civilization be
extracted from very low grade ores at a cost we can afford?%1
If we can show that this problem is solvable, then we can
show that the doomsayers are wrong, and that the people who
want to change our life styles must make us like their new
ones better rather than mrely threaten us.  Actually if we
can't extract minerals from low grade ores, using Pintos
instead of Cadillacs won't save us for long.

	The argument runs as follows:

	1. American population must eventually be stabilized,
but the problem is more acute for more crowded countries.