03-10-2004, 07:59 PM | #1 (permalink) |
Tilted
Location: St. Louis
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The end of the world as we know it
A rather depressing link: Life After the Oil Crash
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03-10-2004, 08:25 PM | #2 (permalink) |
Minion of the scaléd ones
Location: Northeast Jesusland
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I feel fine.
<small>Time I had some time alone. <small> Just came back from a Mead tasting</small></small>
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Light a man a fire, and he will be warm while it burns. Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life. |
03-10-2004, 08:27 PM | #3 (permalink) |
I'm not a blonde! I'm knot! I'm knot! I'm knot!
Location: Upper Michigan
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Sounds a bit like an overblown doomsday prophesy to me. Not that I don't recognize a future problem with us using up our natural fuel supplies. I would like to know what his motivation is behind all this. Yeah sure he's got law degree's and experience in at that area but what experience does he have in chemistry? It kindof seems like a lot of his rescources are related to the oil industry (like Exxon research) that would probably have ulterior motives for touting that we will have more scarce and thus more expensive oil in he future. Just the way this is presented seems to alert my instincts that something is bogus.
Just to begin with (without reading and checking EVERYTHING he said) I found an error. He said that ammonia was usually derived from oil rescources to begin with and wouldn't make a good alternative to producing fuel. Problem with that is that Oil rescources is just one of MANY ways of producing oil. "Ammonia is prepared commercially in vast quantities. The major method of production is the Haber process, in which nitrogen is combined directly with hydrogen at high temperatures and pressures in the presence of a catalyst. It is obtained as a byproduct of the destructive distillation of coal. Ammonia is also prepared synthetically by the cyanamide process: nitrogen gas combines with calcium carbide, CaC2, at high temperatures to form calcium cyanamide, CaCN2, and carbon; the calcium cyanamide reacts with steam to form calcium carbonate, CaCO3, and ammonia. For use in the laboratory, ammonia is prepared by heating an ammonium salt with a strong base. It can also be prepared by reacting a metal nitride with water." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001
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"Always learn the rules so that you can break them properly." Dalai Lama My Karma just ran over your Dogma. |
03-10-2004, 09:14 PM | #5 (permalink) |
Tilted
Location: St. Louis
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I agree that it's just one site and one viewpoint, but it is somewhat convincing. I threw this out there to at least try and raise awareness and promote discussion.
If you read the site, you'll see that they claim that while there's no oil shortage as of yet, that's because we just hit the plateau in terms of oil production. Starting in the next 5 years or so is when we'll begin feeling the first wave of effects. If you can fill up your SUV in 2010 without paying an arm and a couple legs, then you can call us all paranoids. |
03-11-2004, 09:15 AM | #6 (permalink) |
I aim to misbehave!
Location: SW Oklahoma
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Kind of like a trip to the haunted house tour.
We all know it won't get much better but it may not be that scary either. Things like this are what spur alternate energy production. We have known for many years that the oil supply is finite, we're just spoiled here in the old USA. People here, in Oklahoma, are having a cow that gas it up to $1.60 or so. Heck, we could live in Europe and pay their prices. I have a Suburban but very few of us actually need a huge automobile. I'll ride my bike a lot and use my little, old Japanese pickup and leave the Suburban in the barn unless I am hauling the whole family. I'm not ignoring it but I never did like "the sky is falling" kind of reports.
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Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, Jesus Christ and the American G. I. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom |
03-11-2004, 09:50 AM | #7 (permalink) |
Psycho
Location: San Francisco
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Makes me think of the fabricated Diamonds that have been produced in a lab. Don't you think we could do the same thing with organic waste and duplicate the same environment that produced the oil?
Instead of Soilent Green for food, Soilent Green for Oil! Hmmmm.
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"If something has to give then it always will." -- Editors |
03-11-2004, 10:59 AM | #8 (permalink) |
Addict
Location: Ontario, Canada
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Depressing...
We all knew/know something like this is eventually coming. The real questions are when and how will we deal with it. Whether these predictions are accurate for now, or are way ahead of their time we will have to wait and see. But its painfully obvious that the earth is overpopulated and heavily dependant on NON-renewable resources. Its just a matter of how this is all handled. It does look like he is frightened and taking the absolute worst cases for every option. It is also possible that human nature will make this a reality... will have to wait and see.
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"That's why you're the judge and I'm the law-talking guy." Lionel Hutz |
03-12-2004, 12:06 AM | #12 (permalink) |
Rawr!
Location: Edmontania
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I KNEW there was another thread on this
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...threadid=45172 Heh. You can see my opinion of the website in that thread.
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"Asking a bomb squad if an old bomb is still "real" is not the best thing to do if you want to save it." - denim |
03-14-2004, 11:38 AM | #14 (permalink) |
Leave me alone!
Location: Alaska, USA
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What about the other necessities of life?
Phoenix, Las Vegas and southern California and water? Large populations of people. I figure to be in my 60's when the oil gets low. SHIT there goes my motorhome (better get one now). I believe that we need to develop into small communities that require no commuting. There was an article about Edmonton mall and that it requires little or no heating even in the cold of winter. Kinda like a Bio-Dome.
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Back button again, I must be getting old. |
03-14-2004, 12:25 PM | #15 (permalink) |
Insane
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Pretty freaky crap, I dont really know what to beleive but there is definatley some truth behind this and im going to try and make some preperations .. spend all my salary and buy cases of oil and then sell them in 10 years, its like stock thats guaranteed to suceed!
But seriously, I dont know, I may just move up to alaska, I mean how hard can it be to learn to eat walrus and whale all day >< But, something like this will happen, and im pretty confident it will happen within the next 10 years, but, I beleive it will end in a nuclear war not a national oil runout, eventually a major world power will run out of oil and what will they do? Go to war with a major country and that has more oil then the small ones and it will bring a world war III which will end all oil concerns .. |
05-25-2004, 12:33 PM | #17 (permalink) |
Addict
Location: Ontario, Canada
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I don't know about this anymore. There is another thread in the Knowledge forum about this ( http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...threadid=55386 ) that has a lot of good information about this. Particularly this article http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation...7n1/v27n1-1.pdf which seems to provide a different and also very realistic perspective about things.
I agree that this is in fact a non-renewable resource, and eventually we do need to find an alternative source of energy to rely on. But I think in this case the 10 year doomsday prediction may be a bit of "the sky is falling" rather than looking at all the angles. I can see things getting more expensive as the cost of finding new oil increases. But also we are developing better technology to have access to that harder to get to oil. I dont think things are as bad as some seem to believe, but I also dont think things are all OK and it is a problem that can be ignored. We as a race do need to find a better source of energy (renewable would be the best) that we can rely on rather than oil.
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"That's why you're the judge and I'm the law-talking guy." Lionel Hutz |
05-25-2004, 01:51 PM | #18 (permalink) |
Conspiracy Realist
Location: The Event Horizon
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[IMG]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0PQDpAicS4Sk7ff2gE3hTg5JteSSguT5uAyJBYZ67ZOxYGGUoo6LiyL5L3IQXgMLmVi3lB6OlHntw*GcySn2kl7lMZ8A!HVp2/max.jpg?dc=4675473718880193839[/IMG]
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To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.- Stephen Hawking |
05-25-2004, 02:37 PM | #19 (permalink) |
Observant Ruminant
Location: Rich Wannabe Hippie Town
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I've said this before and I'll say it again: there are plenty of other energy technologies out there that are either:
1) ready for prime time but cost too much because they're not produced in high-enough volume to benefit from economies of scale or the kind of continuous process improvement you get in a high-production industry. Solar cells are there, so are solar collectors of other kinds, and certain battery technologies. There are also extreme energy saving technologies out there that still cost a lot, like LED lightbulbs that can light a house for 1/10th the energy cost of today's bulbs. 2) Not quite ready for prime time, but would be if somebody threw some serious $$$ at them, a la a Manhattan-style energy product or DARPA giving away a lot of cash: molecular depolymerization for making oil (literally) out of crap, several competing fuel cell technologies, more wind energy, generators powered by ocean waves, and about five others I can think of. If the shit hit the fan, money would be tossed at these options like rice at a wedding. Nobody's bothering right now because oil is cheap. That will change. The only variable is when, and how fast. Worst case, we'd have a few tough years while we converted to new technologies and new rules for using energy. (There'd be some losers, but also some winners -- might be a good time to get into retrofitting houses for solar). But we'd get there. Last edited by Rodney; 05-25-2004 at 02:48 PM.. |
05-25-2004, 06:24 PM | #24 (permalink) |
The Northern Ward
Location: Columbus, Ohio
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If we haven't perfected electric cars by then, we'll just ask Japan to do it for us.
Or else.
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"I went shopping last night at like 1am. The place was empty and this old woman just making polite conversation said to me, 'where is everyone??' I replied, 'In bed, same place you and I should be!' Took me ten minutes to figure out why she gave me a dirty look." --Some guy |
05-25-2004, 10:07 PM | #26 (permalink) |
Insane
Location: under the freeway bridge
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I know this guy who makes a substitute for diesel from used french fry grease. I think he adds lye to the vat(and possibly something else..maybe diesel lol) and the by products are the fuel and glycerine....like soap..
His truck smells like french fries
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"Iron rusts with disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold water freezes. Even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind" Leonardo Da Vinci |
05-28-2004, 12:01 PM | #27 (permalink) | |
Observant Ruminant
Location: Rich Wannabe Hippie Town
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Quote:
Then we'd have to worry about where our soap was coming from, of course... |
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05-28-2004, 03:24 PM | #28 (permalink) |
slightly impaired
Location: Down South
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This is the second time that I have read this and I have has time to read other information about 'Peak Oil" and it's potential effects.
What the guy is saying is fundamentally true, he just leaves out a lot of possibilities. In the worst case scenario, we would see oil prices rising rapidly until we quickly reached critical mass. The oil suppliers' inability to fill the oil demand would become of paramount inportance to the military factions in every country and then things would get worse. For the most part the best case scenario seems to be that oil prices skyrocket to the point that carpooling, motorcycles and scooters become standard travel vehicles. One article suggested the the US alone (world biggest oil consumer) could temporarily change oil demand by switching to 'necessessary' travel and away from 'luxury' travel. The rest of the world would be rocking and reeling from the industrial fallout and the economic situation of the entire world would begin to collapse, but the demand for crude oil would level off. I feel like there is a much bigger margin of reaction time that the author suggests, but it does make me want to start finding a few hundred extra 50 gallon drums. |
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end, world |
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