Yes, but we’re locking up a lot of those minerals into things, and the demand for them is increasing. The steel used in something like Hoover Dam, for example, is effectively “gone” until we tear the dam down. Also, as more parts of the Earth become occupied, that removes access to the materials which are underneath it. Can’t exactly mine for iron (or whatever) under NYC. Additionally, we’ve got large sections of the Earth that are off-limits for mining, etc. because of environmental concerns. Certainly, we can expect technology to improve where the impact is minimal, but getting the laws changed to allow mining there will be difficult.
I don’t blame him. Blowing a trumpet through a helmet must be really hard.
“In space, no one can hear you play”
Back to the intention of the OP. Disregarding the plausibility of it, how much mass would you have to extract from the Moon for it to have some measurable consequences on Earth?
Gravity follows the inverse square rule, so you’d have to remove a substantial hunk from the Moon for us to be able notice anything at all.
- saw a documentary awhile back that said that if there were gold bars stacked neatly on the surface of the moon, we couldn’t afford to bring them back. It’d cost more to go and retrieve the substance than the value of the substance.
Now, gold is very heavy, but also very valuable, so I think the point is clear. Remember, this isn’t core - but pure gold blocks.
Sure we could, it would just be orders of magnitude more difficult than the way we do it now. It would still be orders of magnitude easier than mining the moon.
Kind of like terraforming the moon. We could turn the entire Sahara into a rain forest with less effort than it would take to even begin the process of thinking about terraforming the moon. (hyperbole, but you get the point)
The first part I can agree with, the second part, not so much. From a technological standpoint it will certainly be easier for a long period of time, however what will be the most onerous part of mining under NYC will not be the technology, but the regulations. You’ll have all kinds of strict regulations on how you can dispose of things like tailings, etc. On the Moon, nobody’ll care that you’re dumping 100 tons of mine tailings 300 feet from the mine entrance. And now that I think about it, one of the things that you’ll have to deal with, if you mine under NYC (or just about anywhere on Earth) that you won’t have to deal with on the Moon, is pumping water out of the mines. NYC is actually built on a pretty swampy area, and the city’s got huge numbers of pumps working 24/7 to keep the water under control.
Yes, but there’s also the point where you don’t want turn too much of the Sahara into a rainforest, as it could cause unwanted climate effects (believe it or not, but things like the size of the Sahara can affect the climate in the US) and desert creatures probably wouldn’t do all that well, living in a rainforest. So you’d want to keep at least a portion of the Sahara desert. Admittedly, you could transform an awful lot of it into rainforest before that ever became a worry.
That wasn’t the problem so much. It’s just that the place had no atmosphere.
golf clap
Yes, for the first 80 or 90 years or so. Then the computer and them will rebel against the Authority. Bunch of crouched-out Loonies, they’ll be so hocked up on that zero-g they’ll start throwing rocks at us. And then will we see an end to the lunar menace?
I see what you did there
I recall reading somewhere that the earth and moon are slowly gaining mass due to meteorites. So maybe a little mining might be a good idea.
Meteorite flux on earth is estimated to be 10[sup]7[/sup] to 10[sup]9[/sup] kg/year. The moon, being smaller, would get much less.
Proportionally speaking, you get much heavier by walking in the rain.
Mining them wouldn’t do squat as a diet aid. 
Are you sure? I recall reading somewhere that the moon acts as an important meteor shield for the Earth.
So a billion years or so of meteorite flux on the moon might add up to a decent amount compared to what might be taken away by mining.