And it is very good at setting prices based on scarcities, technological advances and consumer preferences.

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Now with rising prices and peak oil on the horizon, meaning high costs and eventual actual scarcities, exploration projects of this kind are now looking once again viable.

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At the roundtable, amid general optimism over economic growth, I asked about concerns and several of the executives responded that scarcities and price rises associated with them are pinching.

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Or not despair when they see that the cities and countryside are in need of repair, yet find themselves threatened by scarcities of the resources that sustain their way of life.

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But we must face increasing scarcities.

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But the costs hit home when ecosystem degradation translates into lost lives or illness, when scarcities bring supply chains to a grinding halt, when homes are destroyed or jobs lost, or when preventable damage from natural disasters overwhelms the budgets of insurers and governments.

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