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Growing up, I was always told to save water and energy because "the Earth's resources are finite, and we only have one Earth." This always struck me as wrong, but at the same time, it is such a simple and obvious statement that it's hard to refute.
I think it's a very common sentiment in Germany, greatly influencing the culture in the latter half of the 20th century. The core idea is essentially that at some point, we'll use the last liter of fresh water or mine the last piece of iron ore on Earth.
Reactions to this belief vary widely based on how one views human capabilities and interactions with the natural world. If you come from a more Christian perspective, seeing humanity as the destroyer of the Garden of Eden, responses can range from advocating managed growth (becoming more efficient) to degrowth or even believing humans shouldn't exist at all.
On the other hand, if you believe humans should flourish yet accept the premise of finite resources, the response often is that before we exhaust Earth's resources, we'll conquer space and mine resources from asteroids and other celestial bodies.
I believe the statement itself is fundamentally flawed. If we consider the physical laws of nature, we realize that, outside of atomic fission or fusion, matter is never lost, only transformed. Energy transitions from lower entropy forms to higher entropy forms, but Earth is continuously bathed in vast amounts of energy from the massive fusion reactor in the sky—the Sun—and receives kinetic energy through interactions with other celestial bodies. On balance, it will be a very long time before our energy use approaches the total available energy.
More importantly, the concept of Earth's finiteness could have seemed accurate at any historical point yet would clearly appear incorrect today. Imagine the Roman Empire: a Roman philosopher might have agreed that eventually, we would use up the last tree, harvest all the fields, and exhaust all bronze and marble. When we think about finite resources, we always consider resources relevant to our current technological capabilities.
Fortunately, humanity has consistently discovered entirely new resources and innovative ways to use existing ones more effectively. Romans saw coal as marginally useful—good for writing or as makeup—but during the Industrial Revolution, we harnessed coal as a powerful energy source for applications unimaginable to a Roman. In antiquity, large portions of the population and extensive slave labor were necessary to sustain society agriculturally. Modern societies, however, require far fewer farmers yet produce more than ten times the food on the same land.
The statement, "the Earth's resources are finite, and we only have one Earth," implicitly assumes that our current technological level represents the pinnacle of human progress, with few significant discoveries remaining. It implies a fixed usage of natural resources, presenting humanity as forced to manage an ever-diminishing budget.
Human history refutes this perspective: we continually find innovative ways to utilize natural resources, literally doing more with less. Betting on human progress means anticipating the discovery of entirely new resources or novel uses for existing ones. Even if these new resources are limited, the cycle of innovation continues, alongside advancements in our capacity to reuse and recycle materials.
In reality, Earth isn't finite—as long as we keep innovating.