[Momaw Nadon]

FYI and discussion

[#1CTYankee]

Hogwash, alternative energy sources will reduce the need for oil.
Invest in hog farms!

[Blzbba]

Methane hydrates will save us, once the energy industry develops a method of harvesting the methane....

Methane Hydrates

[JudgemAll]

Yawn... Coal and nukes... why don't we use them more to save on oil? Oh, I forgot, we cant because of windmill huggers.

And by the way, every year new oil deposits are discovered as well as new methods to develop previously unpracticable huge deposits, like the one in Canada that is greater than the Saudi's.

It's all a matter of offer, demand and prices and "get out of the way governments and enviro wackos".

[Monty22]

I remember when I was 5 years old in 1979 and hearing they'd run out of oil before I was old enough to drive.

[BlueLancer]

Note that the chart stipulates ...

"Reserves that can be recovered economically in existing operating conditions."

Well, that leads to several questions on several levels ...

"Economically" today does not mean "economonically" tomorrow. As the prices go up, so does the availability of pumping oil out of deposits that are not "economically-feasible" at this time.

"Existing operating conditions": well, we're already pumping oil out of places that, just a decade ago, were not able to be accessed with that level of technology. Who knows what technology will become available next year or within the next five years.

Finally, remember, in the early 60's, that great ecologic guru Ehrlich foresaw the end of oil in the '70s along with mass starvation in America and around the world. When compared against the inflation that has occurred since the days of the 25-cents per gallon gasoline in the 60's and early 70's, gasoline and oil is not really that much more expensive .. if at all.

[Junior]

Gee, most of the replies on this thread appear to be of the "we'll have oil forever" variety. If we're pumping it out of the ground quicker it can replenish, then there will come a time when the stuff will no longer be available. Of course, when that happens, the same people claiming that we'll never run out of oil will just claim its an environmentalist conspiracy.

[TexasCowboy]

"but our forebears lived without oil and thought themselves none the worse.

We shall have to do the same, so we might as well make the best of it. And the best might even be an improvement on today."

This has to rank as one of the dumbest things I've ever read on FR!

Let's all get nekkid, hug a tree and go live in a cave!
Sheesh!

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Exactly when that day will dawn nobody knows, but people in middle age today can probably expect to be here for it.

I don't believe I'll still be in this world 1000 years from now.

[17th Miss Regt]

In a similar vein, it was discovered that Apprentice candidate Omarosa was not injured by falling plaster. It was a piece of the sky.

[SamAdams76]

Necessity is the mother of invention.

So long as oil stays cheap and plentiful, there will be little incentive to develop alternative energy sources. As soon as it becomes financially rewarding to develop alternative energy sources, they will be developed quickly to meet the growing demand. This is why capitalism works so well.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

This just assumes that the oil reserves are what they are presently estimated. The old theory that this is fossil fuel is now questioned. Some deposits of natural gas are found way to deep to be from decaying animal and plant matter. Carbon and hydrogen as well as iron may be one of the major elements in the earths core. If so that may mean several centurys of useable oil. Then the evionmental terrorists will be complaining of the earth collapsing I suppose.

[Protagoras]

In all likelihood, a source of energy which has yet to be discovered will provide the energy for the future.

The easiest prediction to make is that the internal combustion engine is not the power plant of the future.

[TheStickman]

Ah...so when exactly did the earth stop making oil?

[chronotrigger]

If we spent as much money developing alternate fuel sources (hydrogen) as we spent on going to the moon, we wouldn't have anything to worry about.

[Redcloak]

I can't be certain, but I seem to recall reading an almost identical article in the late '70s. It said that we would run out of crude oil by the end of the century.

[michigander]

All the oil in the world

[Exton1]

It's like calling wolf, they have been predicting the end of oil for 50 years.

[RightWhale]

This Peak Easy Theory is getting serious attention. Oil has been cheaper than dirt, cheaper than water, and cheaper than air. A small increase in the cost of oil leverages big into the economy. When oil costs what wind and solar cost, we will use wind and solar, but wind and solar cannot replace oil; wind and solar can replace about 1/4 of oil. Energy use will drop to 1/4 at the same time that prices of food and manufactured goods increase 4X. This has nothing to do with environmentalism.

[xzins]

Any comments on the following found at: http://www.mikebrownsolutions.com/tesla-lightning.htm

Nikola Tesla: Power from Lightning
Nikola Tesla was the first electrical engineer to harness the awesome power of nature at Niagara Falls. In 1910 he tried to take harnessing the power of nature one step further. He designed a system to harness the power of lightning. J. P. Morgan shut him down.

The average lightning bolt contains a billion volts at 3,000 amps, or 3 billion kilowatts of power, enough energy to run a major city for months. The United States gets hit with 4,000 lightning bolts a day.

Lightning is a discharge of static electricity. The idea of using electrostatic energy for power is not a new one. Benjamin Franklin built an electrostatic motor in the eighteenth century.

Nikola Tesla was the first to conceive of using a tower to attract lightning and harness it. Tesla did not believe in pilot projects.

We do. The system shown in the photo will deliver enough power to light a 25-watt light bulb for slightly over 6 seconds using a static discharge source from a rectifier, which in turn gets its electricity from a wall socket. Any static discharge from any source will charge the capacitors in this system. Capacitors, unlike batteries, can be charged instantaneously.

The wall socket is for convenience. Scale this device up and you could charge it with a lightning bolt (not something we would recommend at this point. Make a mistake and you’ll be vaporized).

This may not look like much but:


1. It works.
2. The principle can be modified and scaled up.

3. The device may look crude, the work area cluttered and the power it produces short-lived.

Now go back exactly 100 years to the first flight of the Wright Brothers airplane at Kitty Hawk in 1903.

Their first flight lasted twelve (12) seconds.

[Beckwith]

So, Dr Colin Campbell and Jean Laherrere concluded we're going to ru out of oil in 2030?

Chicken Little concluded the sky was falling.

But, of course, The Wilderness Publications concurrs and they have no agenda.

So this guy wants to go back to our forefathers and mothers, when it took 3 months to cross the country.

Where do these nuts come from?