tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30786249.post4144496977960247652..comments2008-07-08T06:19:53.227+01:00Richnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30786249.post-63760991171084277182008-07-08T01:25:00.000+01:002008-07-08T01:25:00.000+01:00Love this:<BR/><BR/>"The Terminator: It is in your nature to destroy yourselves."Wolf189 Photographyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10883926369389690593noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30786249.post-79270429375887816972008-07-07T08:34:00.000+01:002008-07-07T08:34:00.000+01:00My views on this are so bleak that I try not to blog about them.<BR/><BR/>Suffice to say that governments have never changed their behaviour by having carrots dangled in front of them. They need a very big stick. <BR/><BR/>The oil crisis will eventually reshape the world. Such is the nature of evolution. Animals evolve by learning from their (usually fatal) mistakes. Humans can and will adapt, but not without paying a very high price in human lives.<BR/><BR/><EM>From Terminator 2: Judgment Day:<BR/><BR/>John: We're not gonna make it, are we? People, I mean.<BR/><BR/>The Terminator: It is in your nature to destroy yourselves.<BR/><BR/>John: Yeah. Major drag, huh?<BR/></EM>Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02276948718081506756noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30786249.post-21058066523251727512008-07-06T23:11:00.000+01:002008-07-06T23:11:00.000+01:00It's worse than that Rich. The German government formed a group of scientists and asked them to come up with politically neutral information about world energy stocks to help inform government decisions. This is the Energy Watch Group. According to them, peak oil is here right now. Every non-opec country in the world has already passed this point, and the opec countries are almost certainly close to it. Better still, we can't switch to coal either. The official global stocks of coal are based on countries' offical stated reserves, which in many case have not been updated since the 1960s. Given that the Chinese are building a coal fired power station every week right now, Energy Watch predict that Peak Coal is only a mere 17 years ahead.<BR/>See http://www.energywatchgroup.org/ for more detail.<BR/><BR/>You've hit the nail on the head that mass transport of manufactured goods and the effect on the world economy is the heart of the issue.<BR/><BR/>Nuclear won't solve the problem. A study from MIT in 2003 said that there is only enough usable Uranium available in a form that can be mined to power 1000 reactors for 40 years. <BR/><BR/>And a few days ago there was a leaked report from the World Bank that biofuels are responsible for 75% of the world food price hikes of recent months.<BR/><BR/>It seems to me that the only way we're going to get through this is through massive energy reduction and really really fast, saving enough energy to power the economy while we come up with alternative methods for transport. The current model is about to shut down. <BR/><BR/>Lady T and I did our carbon footprint (which is pretty much the same as an energy use calculation). By moving closer to work so that I can go to work on a bicycle, going down to one car, replacing our heating system with a brand new one and properly insulating our house, we will have slashed our carbon footprint (and thus energy use) by 2/3 by the end of this year.<BR/><BR/>Now, not everyone can do things like giving up cars - much harder for those who live in the country. But the 2/3 of us who live in cities need to get off our backsides and make personal decisions to change how we live. If Lady T and I can do it so easily, I can't believe that others can't too.<BR/><BR/>My big hope for the future of this planet is that this oil crisis will push people enough to save energy that we might just get creative enough to find replacements. The threat of climate change doesn't seem to be doing it. There's great work being done on creating GM bacteria which can be grown in vats of water to spit out biofuels at 200 times the rate of making it from plants. And there's going to be a revolution in solar power over the next 5 years with nanotech solar inks that can be screen printed onto surfaces to produce cheap solar energy. NanoSolar, a Californian company is already making this stuff for power stations and expects to produce energy at the same cost as from coal - this year.<BR/><BR/>I wonder though, even though it's going to be darned painful, do we NEED this oil crisis to protect ourselves from ourselves? To give us the kick up the rear we need protect the climate from our behaviour?Grommitnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30786249.post-41475072484483275842008-07-06T20:00:00.000+01:002008-07-06T20:00:00.000+01:00Good idea, depending on government. We all know they're here to he'p us.<BR/><BR/>-DD. Brian Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03526887737403699976noreply@blogger.com