Originally posted by: Pliablemoose
The only logical thing to do is invade Canada, free the Canadians from their oppressive regieme, allow Quebec to become France II, & free the oil they've been holding back
There's bio-diesel, hydrogen, solar, wind... Lots of untapped potential. Granted, there are significant infrastructure changes that'l need to be made.
The common fallacy is that we'll run out of oil, we'll never run out of oil, it'll just become very expensive, something about that supply/demand curve fits here. Don't know quite where.
Originally posted by: desy
That particular stat is regarding the easy to get oil.
There is still lots of oil it will just be increasingly difficult to get, harder to get means $$$ they can pump oil out of the Mideast for about $4 a barrell so the rest is profit.
Here in Canada is cost about $18 a barrel so we pump it cause we make money on it when oil was 12$ a barrell they shut all the wells down.
There is the same amount of oil in the Tar Sands of Alberta as there is in Saudi Arabia but it is very $$$ to get out.
It just means the days of cheap oil energy is coming to an end, not oil itself.
Originally posted by: Mallow
I'd say we have between 50-80 years
Originally posted by: Jmman
Conservative estimates are that we have over 2 trillion barrels of oil left on this planet. If you think that means we are going to run out by 2010, all I have to say is "STEP AWAY FROM THE BONG".......
Originally posted by: amnesiac 2.0
My geology prof a few years ago said that most estimates put our current reserves at about a 60 year life span.
There's another 60-100 years trapped in oil shales that are just REALLY difficult to extract, and once we figure out how to harvest methane crystals from the deep sea, we'll be set for God knows how many more years.
Originally posted by: Ynog
Keep in mind they thought we were running out of oil in the 70s.
One of the things i think people should take the predictions with grain of a salt when listening to
the people selling oil. They would love to pump less oil every year because then they can sell it
for more. They will try to convince you that we should pump less oil to make it last longer. Its
simply supply and demand. The less they pump the more the oil they have it worth. We will
definately run out of oil eventually, and we should be working on alternative fuel technologies
but there is no reason to worry about the quantity of oil we have left. Not just yet atleast.
Originally posted by: desy
They didn't have the same technology or information in the 70's that we do now.
There are very few peices of ground that weren't seismographed in the 80's, they know whats out there which is why using current consumption rates they say 50-100 years .
The pinnacle of the easy to get stuff is supposed to be right now.
The fade away will be gradual , market driven, and 'hopefully' new technology to replace, but read an article called 'the tragedy of the commons' it doesn't put a lot of faith in mans abilitity to 'technically fix everything' , it was written in the 70's
Originally posted by: desy
They didn't have the same technology or information in the 70's that we do now.
There are very few peices of ground that weren't seismographed in the 80's, they know whats out there which is why using current consumption rates they say 50-100 years .
The pinnacle of the easy to get stuff is supposed to be right now.
The fade away will be gradual , market driven, and 'hopefully' new technology to replace, but read an article called 'the tragedy of the commons' it doesn't put a lot of faith in mans abilitity to 'technically fix everything' , it was written in the 70's
Originally posted by: Pliablemoose
Traditionally we don't change anything unless our back is against the wall, we can see a 25% increase in efficiency by adopting hybrid power-trains, which will happen in the next 10 years. Once people move away from the strictly petroleum based internal combustion engines, the rest will happen much more quickly.
The economics involved aren't pretty, less & less people will have the money to travel as much & as frequently as we are accustomed to.
We (in the US) will have to adopt a more mass transit friendly stance, and get off our fat asses & walk once in a while.
I think the electric bicycle is going to be big, as well as electric scooters...
Another big area we need to tighten our belts on is housing, we waste enormous sums on heating & cooling our homes/workplaces. The private sector businesses that should be making an all out effort to develop & produce more energy efficient HVAC systems should be ashamed...
My favorite green guote is that we're building energy efficient castles (referring to private homes that are agressively energy efficient) versus something that could be applied to the common home...
My brother in law has a $300K home that's been on "Solar Energy Today"-- My traditional home is actually more energy efficient from the mods I've made & will be more so as I have time & $ to make them, but my home looks like a traditional home, refining existing technology.
Originally posted by: BooGiMaN
havent they been saying this for like the past 20-30 years?
Originally posted by: Hayabusarider
Oil is a finite resource. So it is going to run out. 2010? 2020? Not the point. Oil will rule until other options are cost effective. Unfortunately other options will not be ready because they are not cost effective.
Originally posted by: dquan97
want me to draw a supply and demand curve reflecting this scenario?
Originally posted by: desy
<---used to work on a seismograph crew in the 70's & 80's
Hey me too! Only for one summer in 83 though round the Midale feilds here in Sask. My one buddy even did it even in Saudi Arabia lived in a tent for months!
I just built a new house. Put in the highest R rated windows and highest effecient gas furnace I could buy. But I still didn't build to R2000 standards.
The windows are too big! why build R40 walls when you have R5 windows .
Did you look into ceramic paints at all ?
Seems like a good idea
I don't know enough if I should be sceptical or not