Adapating To Whale Oil Depletion  

Seth Godin has a little post up on how the Dutch adapted to the decline of whale oil production. Of course, the world economy then was nowhere near as dependent on whale oil as it is now on dino-oil, but I like the attitude that its important to adapt, without falling back on the tired old "the market solves all resource allocation problems" mantra (via TreeHugger).

Several hundred years ago, a huge piece of the economy of the Netherlands was based on whale oil. This oil painting gives you a small glimpse of what an industry this was.

No question, those in charge believed that whale oil would never run out, and that if some sort of legislation or new world order came along that threatened the supply of dead whales, they would fight it--the very survival of their families were at stake.

Whale oil, of course, is long gone. And the Netherlands are still here, better than ever.

Some of the whale oil magnates and whale oil processors and whale oil catering guys in the silver trucks (okay, maybe they didn't have silver trucks) got while the getting was good. They learned how to do something else once they saw the industry begin to decay. They took their assets--their capital, their leverage, their training--and used it to get a headstart doing some other mercantile activity. And they thrived as a result.