Petroleum age is just beginning

Washington Times ^ | 8/15/03 | David Deming

[DoctorMichael]

It is hard to imagine how our grandparents and great-grandparents lived at the end of the 19th century. The United States was still largely a rural society, and the amenities we take for granted today were unknown then.

Most people lived on farms. Few Americans had running water, bathtubs, hot water, or flush toilets. Central heating, electricity and telephones were rare. There were no antibiotics. Infant mortality was high, and life expectancy was 30 years lower than it is today. For most people, educational opportunities were very limited. In 1890, only 5 percent of the eligible population attended high school.

[DoctorMichael]

I said this yesterday on a number of Threads and Rush is saying it today.........................

What a golden opportunity for Bush
to slam the Demon-cratic leftist-greenie-ELF-envirowacko--obstructionists who think we are going to "conserve our way out of an energy crisis".


Oh yea, the new tone in Washington, and all that crap.

More Windmills, anyone?

[ChemistCat]

Thanks for posting this.

By the time we really do have to face running out, we should have a much better grasp of chemistry and possess the capacity to synthesize and use more efficient energy sources anyway.

[Rodney King]

He doesn't even include the immense amount of coal reserves. Hitler converted coal to oil at about $100/barrel. I beleive that current tech can do it at $75/barrel. By the time the energy sources listed above run out, we will probably be looking at being able to convert coal to oil at a viable price.

[DoctorMichael]

"..........Oil is by far the cheapest, most abundant, and cleanest source of energy we have. Nearly every advantage we enjoy today can be traced back to the energy provided by the petroleum industry. Yet the men and women who make our civilization possible are too often treated as pariahs who are damaging the environment. This is a shame. The environmental impacts of petroleum exploration and production are virtually negligible in comparison to the benefits they provide..........."

[DoctorMichael]

".........We all want to preserve and protect the natural environment, but much of the modern environmental movement is based upon the myth of a primitive harmony with nature that has never existed. Life without oil and technology is a life that is short, dark and impoverished. Let us give thanks that we have been lifted out of darkness and poverty.........."

[uglybiker]

PING

[Galatians513]

Question:

How does a 'fossil fuel' end up 30,000 feet underground?

Just curious...

[mjp]

Last week I saw a show on TV called "1900 House". In it a family was living in an old house just like they used to live in 1900. It was amazing how hard life was without electricity and oil. For example, in 1900, it used to take three days every week for the wife to do the laundry for the family.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Cincinatus]

How does a 'fossil fuel' end up 30,000 feet underground?

The same way ancient sea-beds get pushed up over 20,000 feet high in folded mountain belts -- large-scale movements of the Earth's crust. Plates collide; sometimes they ride up over each other (forming fold mountains) and sometimes they slide beneath each other (creating trenches, like the Marianas in the Pacific). Both create opportunities for rock beds to be buried or thrust up.

[DoctorMichael]

"..........modern environmental movement is based upon the myth of a primitive harmony with nature that has never existed..........."

Current archaeological digs in the US show that as soon as the peaceful, environmentally-friendly, Indians come across the land bridge 10,000 years ago, the mega-fauna in the North American continent DISAPPEARED.

Over-hunting?

Did the environmentally-aware Indians cause the extinction of numerous animal species?

So much for the worship of "The Primitive".

[DoctorMichael]

Either successive layers of soil were placed over it and compressed over time or there was folding of the earth that buried the material that gave rise to the oil. I'm not a Geologist, but those are off the top of my head.

[JmyBryan]

Look up Thomas Gold for an alternative theory of petroleum origins. I think his book's name is The Deep Hot Biosphere.

[Agnes Heep]

Did the environmentally-aware Indians cause the extinction of numerous animal species?

I don't know the answer to that one, but I do know that the Indians were neither more nor less environmentally aware than any other group of humans. If they didn't over-exploit their resources it was only because they didn't need to.

[Cincinatus]

Look up Thomas Gold for an alternative theory of petroleum origins.

Yes, and while you're at it, be sure to check out bleeding as a way to fight disease, willow-witching as a technique to find water, and astrology as a way to predict the future. Oh, and if you go sailing, be sure not to fall off the edge of the Earth!

[JmyBryan]

I haven't followed it that closely, but I recollect that his theory may still have some viability.

[tpaine]

And be sure to ignore the fact that some of the planets are 'gas giants'. Methane is a common substance in our solar system, just as it is a common non biological substance on earth.

Methane + heat + pressure = petroleum...

Or, if you favor Golds theory, throw some micro-biological action into the methane soup of the deep hot bio-sphere.

[Cincinatus]

Gold is a crank of long establishment. He happens to be a crank who was once right (about the origin of pulsars) and thus, became one of the most dangerous of cranks -- someone who has the patina of authority without the constraints of any knowledge whatsoever.

Gold was famous in the 1960's for predicting that the dark maria of the Moon were gigantic dust bowls, which would swallow up any astronauts landing there. He was as right about that as he is about the abiotic origin of petroleum.

[Cincinatus]

And be sure to ignore the fact that some of the planets are 'gas giants'

In case it's escaped your notice, we don't happen to live on any of those.

[tpaine]

Methane is a common substance in our solar system, just as it is a common non biological substance on earth.

Read much? -- Or is it that your eyes are as closed as your mind?