Oil!
The earth has a limited supply of oil, right? We don't know how much, but we're certainly not producing more in any sort of meaningful way. So eventually, we'll run out. There just won't be any more to suck out of the earth. Well, part and parcel with that is "peak oil", which is the point at which we've reached peak production; we've got the more wells running faster than ever before. Supply and demand seems to hold true in this area, (that was a wee bit o' sarcasm) so that would create lower prices, all other things being equal. Well, if you haven't noticed, gas is $2.30 per gallon! #$%@! The media is treating this like it's just a temporary flit into the stratosphere. Every once in a while, you see a headline that says "High gas prices here to stay" citing some expert. Have you ever wondered about the market mechanics behind this? Perhaps could there be just the slightest chance that oil is becoming harder to find, and the current oil fields are slowing down?
One particular problem concerns me. We are continually growing in worldwide demand. The US certainly isn't slowing down, or buying smaller cars even. China's economy is growing at a huge rate; 10% compared to something like 6% here in America (that's what you get when you economically confine a quarter of the world's population, and then all of a sudden say "Hey, if you work harder, you'll get richer.") All this demand is creating pressure for more oil. So, OPEC is pushing way over their published quotas on some of their richest, most productive fields. So what? Get this; the increased production is actually damaging the geological structure of the oil fields, and in the long run will make it impossible to extract crude from them. Not only irresponsible, just plain stupid in an economic sense. "Let's see, should we feed this demand now? Or should we force the world to cut back a little, and make a much larger profit in the future when we've got the only oil in the world?"
By the way, I didn't think of any of this myself. My good friend David Johnston spent a day just explaining it to me, and we figured out our options. As far as I can see, oil is pretty much the least efficient way of converting energy to a usable form. Think about it; all of our energy comes from the sun one way or the other. That's why the Wachowski Bros. had to throw in that little thing about combining fusion with the human body for energy; it doesn't work in a closed loop like that, or it would be a perpetual motion machine. Anyway, our current system involves the sun being converted into carbohydrates by plants. The plants are then converted to proteins by humongous reptiles. The reptiles die, get compressed in the earth for a few thousand years (unless you believe in evolution, then it would be a few million years). Then we pump out the result, spend quite a lot of resources and man-hours to refine it. Then all you have to do is pump it into your freaking monstrous SUV that you need because you have two kids now. (Believe it or not, I'm a Republican, I'm just kind of grumpy.) We have an alternative. It involves putting a solar power panel on your roof, and do whatever you want with the electricity. We have everything we need; reliable batteries, powerful electric motors. Or you could go the route of hydrogen, and use the electricity to convert water to hydrogen and oxygen.
Did you know that the power company will pay you if you put more power into the grid than you take out? Imagine, a negative electricity bill. What would happen if we started roofing with photo-voltaic cells? We could abandon power plants, and have a distributed power production system, with the extra electricity making hydrogen at gas stations, which you could then buy. Wow.
p.s. Another Wow. This time I'm referring to the length of this thing. If you read this, you must be really interested. I congratulate you. Go here. It's HubbertPeak.com. Hubbert was the guy who predicted in the '70s that this would happen.
One particular problem concerns me. We are continually growing in worldwide demand. The US certainly isn't slowing down, or buying smaller cars even. China's economy is growing at a huge rate; 10% compared to something like 6% here in America (that's what you get when you economically confine a quarter of the world's population, and then all of a sudden say "Hey, if you work harder, you'll get richer.") All this demand is creating pressure for more oil. So, OPEC is pushing way over their published quotas on some of their richest, most productive fields. So what? Get this; the increased production is actually damaging the geological structure of the oil fields, and in the long run will make it impossible to extract crude from them. Not only irresponsible, just plain stupid in an economic sense. "Let's see, should we feed this demand now? Or should we force the world to cut back a little, and make a much larger profit in the future when we've got the only oil in the world?"
By the way, I didn't think of any of this myself. My good friend David Johnston spent a day just explaining it to me, and we figured out our options. As far as I can see, oil is pretty much the least efficient way of converting energy to a usable form. Think about it; all of our energy comes from the sun one way or the other. That's why the Wachowski Bros. had to throw in that little thing about combining fusion with the human body for energy; it doesn't work in a closed loop like that, or it would be a perpetual motion machine. Anyway, our current system involves the sun being converted into carbohydrates by plants. The plants are then converted to proteins by humongous reptiles. The reptiles die, get compressed in the earth for a few thousand years (unless you believe in evolution, then it would be a few million years). Then we pump out the result, spend quite a lot of resources and man-hours to refine it. Then all you have to do is pump it into your freaking monstrous SUV that you need because you have two kids now. (Believe it or not, I'm a Republican, I'm just kind of grumpy.) We have an alternative. It involves putting a solar power panel on your roof, and do whatever you want with the electricity. We have everything we need; reliable batteries, powerful electric motors. Or you could go the route of hydrogen, and use the electricity to convert water to hydrogen and oxygen.
Did you know that the power company will pay you if you put more power into the grid than you take out? Imagine, a negative electricity bill. What would happen if we started roofing with photo-voltaic cells? We could abandon power plants, and have a distributed power production system, with the extra electricity making hydrogen at gas stations, which you could then buy. Wow.
p.s. Another Wow. This time I'm referring to the length of this thing. If you read this, you must be really interested. I congratulate you. Go here. It's HubbertPeak.com. Hubbert was the guy who predicted in the '70s that this would happen.
posted by Mike Belliveau at 5:48 PM
2 Comments:
Just pointing out two things. Systems conflict on the Dinosaur's Class. Some say archosauria, others say reptilia. The reptilian one would make your statement technically true, but dinosaurs only looked like our modern reptiles. They were warm-blooded, and therefore a lot more active than our cold-blooded reptiles. Second, most of our oil doesn't come from dinosaurs. It comes from the compressed bodies of single-celled organisms that collected on ancient seabeds. And third, sediments build up at a certain rate. If dinosaurs are only a few thousand years old, how come they're hundreds of millions of years deep in sediment? And while i'm at it, how come there aren't any dinosaur skeletons lying around near the pyramids, eh?
I have no certain answers, obviously, but here are a few ideas that are floating around. First, the Flood. The world being covered in water would have some serious geological implications; ones that would certainly look like million year old layers to the evolutionary-centric geologist examining them. Second, God certainly could have created that wonderful black stuff "in-state", that is, already there, looking a million years old, around the same week that Adam got his rib ripped out. (Keep in mind that I'm approaching all this with the Bible's infallibility in mind.)
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