pig

first, i think it's important to note that everyone who posts in this thread is speaking in hypotheticals, because we are talking about the development of technologies that will take the next 20-50 years to be realized in any practical form. that said, i would like to make a few comments concerning the op.

on the topic of peak oil, i don't have much to say that is particularly useful at this time. it's a reality we have to live with. oil is a *great* chemical. with proper mitigation strategies, oil in it's uses for energy production and storage, polymer production, lubricants, hydraulics, cooling fluids, etc - it does the job. the obvious problem is that we haven't followed clever mitigation strategies, but for a long time we didn't really know we needed them. we now know, or at least strongly suspect, that we do. that is an engineering problem, and it is one that can theoretically be addressed. of course, we have the long term implications of the use we have already made of oil, and the gigantic problem of cleaning up what we have already done, dealing with the problems we can't actually fix, etc. - but what is done is done. no putting that genie back in the bottle. that is one entire problem in and of itself.

regardless, it's availability will be limited as time goes by.

2. so, if we're just dealing with the energy aspects, we have to find another method of dealing with production, storage, transportation, and recovery/end use. i personally feel that this will involve a series of cultural changes regarding what we perceive to be necessary aspects of our lifestyle that are facilitated by energy availability. currently, we live as though we have unlimited energy resources, if we're talking industrialized nations. this is changing, and will continue to change. therefore, the question becomes how far do we change, and how far do we have to change?

3. thus enters the scientific and engineering question: what do we implement for an energy source, an energy storage / carrier technology, what device do we use to recover the stored energy, what infrastructure is put in place to facilitate this, and what are the safety / environmental strategies associated with it?

i don't want to get into it too much at this point. all i will say is that the people who are working on this problem are very well aware of all the difficulties associated with it. there is no home run answer right now, but there are technologies that are being identified and assessed. these technologies are still very much developmental, but they are coming along. in the end, we will have a technology in place, or a suite of technologies, and we will have to conform to what they can provide. it is unforseeable at present as to whether a core set of technologies, in the relatively near term (think next century or so), will emerge such that we can use them in a similar way that we currently use oil, natural gas, and coal - or whether they will simply allow us to move forward while continuing to develop additional technologies. who can say what we will be doing, as a culture (perhaps on a planetary scale) in 200 years that will affect how we deal with energy?

4. so to me, the question is truly one of mindset. are you part of the problem or part of the solution? do we simply throw up our hands and say 'the sky is falling' and give up, or do we find a solution that will work, however well it works, and continue to find new ways of addressing the problem? do we go all thundar the barbarian and start riding around with a flaming sword, a fucked up chewie knock off, and hot wizard lady?

5. energy is only one problem that we will have to address culturally over the next few centuries, but it is a big one. people will continue to work on it, and in the end they will have a solution. what kind of solution? who knows...but what will be will be.

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