Forecasts projecting that resources such as oil, trees, and farm land will be depleted have been incorrect primarily because they have failed to account for
a. this is a trick question: we have already run out of several natural resources that were privately owned and this will be an increasing problem in the future.
b. increased government regulation of the resource as it approaches depletion.
c. prudent government purchases of the resource in order to conserve it for future generations.
d. the role of prices; if the supply of a resource decreases and it becomes more valuable, its price will rise, increasing the incentive to both conserve the resource and find more of it.