Worldwide oil crisis soon...

[Umbran]

Well, we're not simply running out of fuel. There are millions of gallons still left. What is getting expended is the reserves that they found like 30 years ago. There is likely still a lot of oil out there, but it will take investment to find, and tap.

Possibly more than just investment. Some of that oil will be in places where drilling for it may be an environmentally unsound manuver, and things quickly get sticky in such cases.

But the problem is that the hydrogen itself requires energy to create. How is it done? By passing electricity through water.

At the moment, yes. There's been some promising research done on other methods. Passing slighly warm alcohol (which can be produced through biological processes) over certain catalysts can produce hydrogen, for example.

Unless we move to entirely nuclear/solar/wind power, which is unlikely, as the latter two aren't the most efficient, and the first one creates pretty dangerous byproducts, and the anti-nuclear protesters did a pretty good job of ensuring that nuclear generators aren't seen in a very positive light.

A note - some of our problems with nuclear reactors come from our own policy. One of the big questions that arises when the subject of nuclear reactors comes up is "What do we do with the spent fuel?" The stuff is both long-term radioactive and chemically toxic. Nasty.

What they don't tell you is that the spent fuel can be recycled, and more energy extracted from it. The resulting waste is far, far less nasty. During the Carter administration, they made such recycling illegal to help prevent terrorist acess to the materials. The longer the chain of hands the fuel must pass through, the more likley the fuel will fall into the wrong hands, you see. Perhaps at some point our need for energy will exceed our fear, and this recycling ban will be lifted.

 

[nothing to see here]

There is absolutely no way this topic will last much longer without denigrating into the old taboo 'political discussion.'

Because, despite the title of this thread, the idea of an 'iminent oil crisis' is a subject of debate. And it's a political debate, not a scientific one.

The fact of the matter is, since this issue first raised it's head in the 60's...estimates of extractable world-wide oil reserves have consitently been revised upwards. That oil is a finite resource no one debates...however human ingenuity (and the resources of the oil industry) have proven more than that match for the march of time...so that the floating target date for when the wells run dry continues to be pushed back.

I don't begrudge the people who use these scare tactics to try to prompt action. Fear messaging has been a mainstay of environmental debates for a long time. And certainly we can debate whether, at current consumption levels, whether or not society is heading in the right direction.

We just shouldn't do it on a non-political message board.

 

[Desdichado]

Exactly. And the thread has only given an excuse for political discussion to already crop up repeatedly.

Since when is "ban SUVs" an important political agenda item for anyone, anyway? But clearly it is. This thread has been little but politics.

 

[Miyazawa Mizaki]

First of all: I hope I am not inadvertently mentioning a political thing with this. If it is the case, let me apologize.

So here is what I discovered yesterday: It looks like the world is heading relatively fast toward a freakin oil crisis (http://www.oilcrisis.com/). But you and me, most people, are not aware of it yet. What do you think is going to happen? Do we have replacement energy sources and technologies on the way? and especially for cars, planes, and other vehicles? Do you think such technologies will arrive very soon? I remember having read a few years ago an article about hydrogen/electricity cars for a near future (they said 20 years, so it should now be 12-15 years ahead), but then nothing...

Yeah about the hydrogen cars this farmer in the states started running his farm on hydrogen fuel cells in the early 80s. The US goverment made it so he cant tell anyone how he figured it out. Here in Canada in the 1920 farms made their own ethinol fuel and the goverment made that illegal so they would have to buy fuel.

Also did you know that in Japan FedEx uses only hydrogen powered cars in large cities? I've been there and saw it.

The technologies have been around forever, the goverments just dont want people being self sufficent becuase you cant tax people for it.

 

[EricNoah]

I am impressed that folks a) know the rules and b) are generally being pleasant. I do agree that there is probably no way to discuss this topic without politics being dragged into it.

 

[Henry]

As glad as I am that this has been a civil discussion, It's already ventured into the lands of politics and government conspiracy theories, so closed it goes.