Yes, I had to post it.
Posted on 10/30/2008 4:48:37 AM PDT by decimon
The zero energy future does not exist. This kind of future is often seriously discussed at peak oil sites, where they say that after say one hundred years there will be no more oil and civilization will revert to a pre-oil status.
Biofuels are already here and can be scaled up. There is already over 1 million barrel per day of oil equivalent in ethanol and biodiesel. The world uses 86-88 million barrels per day of oil or oil equivalent liquids in 2008. [42 gallons in a barrel. 365 days. 15330 gallons/year is one barrel per day.]
The projection shown does not include miscanthus [elephant grass], algae, seaweed or other new biosources.
(Excerpt) Read more at nextbigfuture.com ...
Growing a future ping.
Yes, I had to post it.
Con Fusion Syndrome. It’s spreading.
It is an an absurd assumption of the most Luddite sort to speak of "when we run out of gas" because too many people stand to make a fortune on the next wave, and we have no idea if out there in somebody's garage right now is the bare bones of the Mr. Fusion retrofit.
LOL...I read that as “elephant gas”!
Thanks for the supporting graphic to my post!
With a free market, a few things are certain:
1) We will NEVER run out of hydrocarbon-based fuels. NEVER. If costs creep up, the increased price of the fuel at the pump will cause people to do what they aways do: adapt, change behavior, substitute and invest in higher efficient uses;
2) The only thing that counts is the PRICE of the finished fuel at the pump. Should conventional sources of hydrocarbons (like from crude oil) get too expensive, alternative sources can be converted, and they will when it becomes cost effective to do so;
3) Our environment is AWASH in hydrocarbons that are suitable for conversion into fuels. Whether it is crude oil, coal, methane hydrates, food wastes, sewage sludge, or even household garbage, anything with hydrocarbons can be converted into liquid fuels. The only issue is the cost of conversion.
4) “Peak Oil” is no more about the price of gasoline at the pump than “Global Warming” is about climate change. Both are far more ideological wrappers for socialist agendas by self-loathing liberals than anything else.
I remember enjoying the old “Riverworld” SciFi series.
In the first book, every human who ever lived finds himself suddenly reincarnated naked on the banks of an endless river with nothing but a food dispenser that operates by some kind of inexplicable alien energy-to-matter conversion. It is clear that this device is meant to satisfy all of their bodily needs, so there is no need for innovation or hard work in order to maintain themselves.
Within a short amount of time, the humans have figured out how to harness the power of the food dispenser to create electricity, and have built armaments, riverboats, airships and all manner of technological marvels.
Human beings will not be kept down. They will not go, willingly, back to the caves. It may be a fond dream of some bunnyhuggers that we all go back to live in the woods, but that is not the Human Way.
If the “Human Way” sounds a lot like the “American Way”, that is no coincidence.
That will work if you can collect it. You, not me. ;-)
Ethanol is the blindest of blind alleys. The economics of it says it all. It requires subsidies to be produced and uses twice the energy to produce it that it stores.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.