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So the end of the world is coming...
ZebraDog
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/
So it would seem in the presentation of this article that at most we've got until 2030. With oil being a resource that may be running out and seeing as it powers our food, electric, transportation, economic, and the modern world, I'm a bit worried. Now I'm not entirely too sure whether I'm part of the gullible masses or if this is a real threat to Civilization. The idea behind it seems pretty sound, and the sources do seem reliable. Could I possibly get any input onto whether I'm a complete loon for freaking out about some internet hoax? Or if I should really start looking into my bucket list. Many thanks.
So it would seem in the presentation of this article that at most we've got until 2030. With oil being a resource that may be running out and seeing as it powers our food, electric, transportation, economic, and the modern world, I'm a bit worried. Now I'm not entirely too sure whether I'm part of the gullible masses or if this is a real threat to Civilization. The idea behind it seems pretty sound, and the sources do seem reliable. Could I possibly get any input onto whether I'm a complete loon for freaking out about some internet hoax? Or if I should really start looking into my bucket list. Many thanks.
"We require more Vespene Gas"
ZebraDog on
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All you gots 'ta do is follow the money
I'm sure there are ways to synthesize the stuff though, aren't there? If not, someone'll dump enough cash there until we have a way to.
Problem solved in one generation. You're welcome.
No man should have that kind of power.(Twitter)
Spiders will need stronger webs.
Fish-brain power.
You have those elephant fish, right?
Keep the feet, reduce the footprint.
Oh, and since Sal's obligatory post was made, here's mine.
Read this:
Now. As in right now. Why aren't you reading it?
On the plus side, if it's harder to relocate resources, there will be slightly less homogeneity between locations, and so travel may actually get you more for your money, experience wise.
Overall, I expect the traditional family model will continue to break up, as people will be able to find better places to live more easily, and once there, may not be able to afford to go back home to visit.
The housing issue will make this all the more interesting.
You aren't going to have a nuclear reactor in your trunk, powering your car. Transportation requires energy dense, portable fuel. Currently we only have fossils that can fill that role. If cars ran on rainbows and happy thoughts nobody would complain about them near as much.
I still would because they're largely needless in many instances that we now use them for and take up a great deal of space for a single person's transit. New Urbanism and all that.
whoever said it at the beginning of the thread is right - big companies will switch to alternative fuel solutions when oil is about to be "depleted".
they always want to make money. they won't let "the world crash", because it's not profitable.
edit: also people saying that fossil fuels are our only good fuel really need to google: alternative fuel solutions.
there are alternative solutions that are both feasible and inexpensive. i'm not talking about biodiesel, either.
most of all, most of all
someone said true love was dead
but i'm bound to fall
bound to fall for you
oh what can i do
Yup, and you're sequestering carbon at the same time.
Pump the carbon dioxide output from a factory into an algae farm, the carbon gets turned into biodiesel instead of greenhouse gas. It's not something I know a whole lot about, except that it's not a terribly novel idea.
This is just one more reason why corn-based ethanol fuel programs are fucking stupid and need to die.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Yeah. The first thing we'll see is food prices going up...
oh.
oh shits.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
It's not stupid at all.
It's political.
You know that one of most successful ethanol plants in California is run by a guy who put the regulations in to begin with, right?
And that he gets away with writing off the corn mash as "waste," but then sells it for a tidy profit, which nobody lacking his connections has managed?
Corn ethanol isn't remotely stupid.
It's just not pro-environment. The opposite in many respects, really.
I love how that shit gets into the water table.
Okay, it's stupid unless you're one of the guys who's actually evil enough to get your hands in it.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Nuclear energy can fairly easilly fill our electricity needs, so that isn't a problem.
And plug in hybrid cars are only a few years away anyway.
I don't see the oil thing as being that big of a problem, in the long run it'll probably be a good thing because of the reduced danger of global warming.
--
I think coal was 200 years, oil 50.
Humanity will survive, there's little doubt.
The issue is if we'll ruin the environment, majority human health, and the intellectual progress that health tends to allow.
People tend to have a harder time inventing near-magical machines when they are half-starved and gasping for air in a smog-choked landscape with only four choices in vegetable and twenty kinds of urban bushmeat, twelve of which are rat.
We'll get through it in the long run, but things may suck for the next century or so, and we'll lose a lot of living things that we can't get back.
Plug-in hybrids (in the US) will draw energy from the primarily coal-and-gas-based electrical grid increasing coal consumption.
We're a number of years away from having enough nuclear power capability in the US to make a dent in our fossil fuel consumption, mostly because of well-meaning but slightly ignorant environmentalism and NIMBYism.
Plug-in hybrids won't ship your food to you or make the plastics that go into... just about everything.
We'll feel some economic pain one way or another. There's no way around it. We're not heading to a Mad Max scenario of complete economic collapse, but it's still a big deal.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
According to the Mayans, that is.
Then there's biodiesel, which tends to be based on plant oils or waste fat. It has similar issues as ethanol in that a number of the currently most cost effective sources compete with the food supply. However, there are other sources which don't, such as the weed jatropha or using waste fats, but those tend to have limitations or economic problems. I think I heard the estimate of jatropha based biodiesel was upwards of $4 a gallon back before the dollar completely tanked. Then there's algae based fuel which is theoretically the best because it doesn't compete with food at all and is high density without the need for useful land, but the tech on that is still a fair ways out.
Of course battery technology might improve too and lead to feasible electric cars, or we could start getting more plug in hybrids. Even if these have higher initial costs, the rising price of fuel makes these more attractive, and the demand response will ease matters given sufficient time.
I'm pretty sure it's something like December 21st, 2012
I plan on going about my daily business like normal
We got to the Mayans first, fortunately.
(no really, whats wrong with hydrogen already)
Buh...biodiesel?
or even better, hybrid cars running on 50% electricity generated by wind, solar, wave and nuclear power with optional biodiesel.
I don't even see why we wouldn't necessarily have 100% electric cars one day?
The big problem really seems to be plastics rather than power, but plastics whilst a highly flexibly packaging and manufacturing material are also horrible for the environment. I'd welcome the day that forces materials researchers to find an alternative. Hell, there's already alternatives for packaging. Paper and cardboard, obviously, but they've also started developing plastic-like materials from cornstarch which has the added benefit of being highly biodegradable. It's not an ideal substitute yet for several reasons, some because it doesn't perform as well as real plastic and some because it is sometimes too biodegradable and of course because hyper-reliance on corn brings up other problems, like arable land being shifted from food production to fuel and packaging production, but the opportunity and potential is there for someone to develop alternatives to plastic. The only reason we still use plastic is because it's the easiest option. When the oil reserves dry up, that will no longer be the case.