My friends, if you think the future looks bright consider this:
right now based on recent gas prices and how the economy reacted to it I think its fair to say that we are looking at some serious economic doo doo. Because oil is depleting we need to spend more of that energy on finding better ways to extract it (tar sands, deep oil, etc). And right now oil prices are not high enough to get innovative people to freak out and invest in new technologies that are not nearly as wonderful as petroleum in net energy return. the matter of the fact is that the reason we are living such luxurious lives is because we have a surplus of energy and we do not need as many farmers and such to supply the essentials.
let me put it this way, in midevil times for every 1 calorie humans burnt in their body farming they got 1.2 calories back from a sustainable agriculture system. this meant that their could be kings, nobles, a ruling class, and a large dirt poor class, and SLOW economic growth.
these days for every 1 human NATURALLY burnt calorie on farming we get 100 calories in return…. this allows for massive specialization and massive economic growth. this 1:100 calorie production ration will simply not last any longer because of the access to CHEAP oil. now that the production in cheap oil is on the decline we should be heavily investing in other energy resorces which have about the same energy return. the only two the come remotly close to having the same energy return are wind and solar power. but theres a problem you cant use these for transportation. our other sources of energy and oil have absolutly terrible energy returns for example tar sands 1:1.5 or corn based ethanol 1:1.2. right now the energy return for the cheap oil is 1:30 (it used to be 1:100). with increasing global demand i am quite puzzled at how we are going to be able to sustain humanity’s future.
to put it plainly i think that people are over ignoring this posing problem and are missled by the media that technology will save us. the problem is NOW and the technology sucks in energy return and i think humanity (modern society in particular) is about to… well most people seem to be in complete denial about that because they cant imagine a non-spoiled lifestyle
how do you think this problem will be solved? how will the common folk react to the coming problem? how will you change your life when energy costs go from skyrocketing to moonrocketing?
you know what i dont care , honestly i dont give a F*** !!!
you might consider adopting the same view point.
i feel great really , i dont care what runs out and what dont !!!
We have enough oil for the next 50 years. We are using solar / wind power more and more. And when peak oil begins to happen, suddenly all these renewable energy sources will become economically viable, and thus will take off.
Never underestimate human stupidity, but never underestimate human ingenuity either.
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How do you solve peak oil? The market will do that when we get to that point. Prices will rise and we will correspondingly change our methods of production.
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Actually, just attended a class with a Rice University prof re energy economics. I asked a question re peak oil’s effect on the market, and he responded that the current outlook is that there is plenty of oil reserves that can be tapped, although the price of doing so will increase over the decades. He believed the peak oil theory was essentially true, that there will be a day where oil reserves will run their course, but that it is still very far off in the future.
Does I buy that opinion? Not really, but I do believe that climate change regimes will force the issue before oil reserves become critical. So it is a back-burner issue for me at the moment.
Peace
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There are two things that have happened at the same time that mean things are moving along at a bit of speed.
First were are in the middle of a recession, the automotive industries are on there knees as people are not buying there products. The governments have offered money to help them out but only if they produce the next generation of gree transport.
I have always believed that on some drawing board hidden in some dark cupboard there was a design for the next hydrogen/electric/hybrid car and now is the time for these radical designs to go into production.
At the same time as this has happened the world governments have woken up to the fact that the Opec countries have us by the balls, this is the reason why we are seeing wind turbine, tidal power, hydro powers, nuclear etc popping up all over the place.
Because we are in a recession the demand for oil has dropped to the point were world demand is at it lowest for many years, lets all hope that at the end of the recession we will be in a better position not to need as much oil as we have in the past.
Ja.
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i suppose i dont freak out because i dont have a car
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If you think your info. is scary, read the book-The Limits to Growth, published in 1972.
Peak oil is a true theory, but the time frame is always being miscalculated. The world has discovered two oil reserves bigger than those of the Mid-East, which would lead me to say that the proven oil reserves are bogus info.- a guess at best.
The oil prices of 2008 were artificially inflated. At its peak, pun intended, there were 50 transactions for each barrel of oil produced. With all of those buyers and sellers- the price goes up. When congress threatened investigation, automatically the prices started to fall. Not a coincidence.
If you seek alternatives, switchgrass used instead of ethanol results in 10 times the energy per ton. My favorite is butanol. Butanol can be put in existing gas tanks without modification. Its process is being researched by major oil companies as we speak. It is usually made from oil too, but it can be made from organisms as well.
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you know what i dont care , honestly i dont give a F*** !!!
you might consider adopting the same view point.
i feel great really , i dont care what runs out and what dont !!!
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