Oil

[Scarlett]

What is going to happen, do you think, when we finally run out of oil? Will people stop fighting? Will we use electric cars? Why aren't we all using electric cars now?

[qapmoc]

That was interesting..!, the whole list became one block which don't link, anyway the address are correct so enter them manually or google for peak oil or oil depletion.

[AB Editor]

qapmoc's link should be working now. great sites!

[kepla]

Okay I have a solution. It could be madee to work but will probably never happen because it would need the politicians of several coutries to stop call a halt to thier own short-term careers agendas and actually do something to benefit us all in the long term. Shame. As I see it, the problem with using fossil fuels isn't that they will eventually run out - anyone would know that - the problem is the release into the atmosphere of carbon which was trapped out of the air in the primieval carboniferous forests many millions of years ago. So we are mopving carbon from a time when the earth was much hotter, and the air contained about 30% carbon dioxide, to the present day. Obviously this causes pollution but at least when the oil runs out the pollution will stop ! So why not grow some more ? There are plenty of known grain plants, and more could easily be developed, whose seeds can be pressed to produce oil or they can be fermented to produce alcohol. These plants would absorb at least as much carbon dioxide while they were growing as the fuel they yielded gave off, so there would be no net detrimental effect on the atmosphere. Okay ? So now we need somewhere to grow all these fuel crops. This is where the politicians come in - by getting each 'western' country to 'sponsor' a third-world country and help them to develop the farming industry necessary to grow those fuel crops and sell them to a guaranteed market. Hey presto ! In one fell swoop the third world country has a thriving economy and can stop starving to death and the western country has a supply of fuel oil and alcohol. Pollution has vanished and people are no longer starving to death. It IS that simple ! It just takes the politicians to organise it, that's all.

[qapmoc]

HI kepla, your solution while it makes excellent sense in an ideal way will never happen. Why -
1. Because the developed countries (and I mean the general populations not just a few politicians or scientists) will not admit the end is here until they have used all the oil fighting to get the last drops and then there will be none left for anything like your idea.
2. If you try to spend that much money developing third world countries then most of it will never get to where it will actually is required to do the things required (I am not biased, I live in one)
3. Most of the third world countries already suffer from water shortages (caused in part by global warming) and would never have the natural resources available to put your idea in practice, they are only just keeping their agricultural systems going as it is now.
4. The amount of land required to produce alternative fuels is just so large that there is just not enough anywhere, consider the USA for example, today they produce alcohol from corn, the alcohol makes up 1% of their total fuels use per year but they use 40% of their farm land to produce it. Simple arithmatic shows that to turn to bio-fuels to replace hydrocarbons is just not possible.

[sincnoel]

with oil supplies dwindling, it makes you wonder why motor racing types are allowed to waste precious fuel so prodigiously on what is, after all, a rich man's "sport". when will motor racing be banned?