[huskerlug] Re: A 100 watt laptop requires 960 lbs of coal per year!
- From: tw <techworld.mail@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: huskerlug@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:54:52 -0500
I Definitely agree with you on the increasing consumption bit. I just
foresee us developing new methods of drilling, new ways to use oil and
even new methods of creating it.
They're looking at taking the converting the hundred+ meter deep seabed
into oil even.
I think it will decline and it will be used less for things like cars
and trains and more for things like planes + space transit in the future
which will also help. I think that even at current rates they'd find
ways to get more but I don't see that happening.
Oil doesn't make much sense for cars or electricity past the next 10-20
years at all. Assuming that people embrace technology, that is.
Aaron
On Sun, 2008-03-30 at 21:39 -0500, GreyGeek wrote:
> tw wrote: Make no mistake, oil/natural gas isn't going anywhere. It's a
> verygood fuel source for many applications. There's enough to last for
> centuries at current rates.
> Centuries? Hardly.
>
> In 1974 my wife and I experienced the Arab Oil embargo. Teaching in a rural
> HS at the time, and being the 2nd HIGHEST paid teacher in the school, I was
> bringing home $700/month. We lived out in the country and used Propane to
> heat and cook with, which was stored in our rented 500 gal Propane tank.
> ThePropane supplier usually filled it to 400 gal, or 80%, to allow for heat
> expansion, even in the winter. The problem was that the price of Propane
> hadrisen from 27 cents/gal and was selling for $1.50/gal. The farm house we
> rented was built in 1887 and was uninsulated. I had to fill that Propane
> tank almost every 4 or 5 weeks between November and April. It took $600,
> leaving only $100 to live on for the rest of the month. That's why I hunted
> for meat, and worked on weekends. It got so expensive that I installed a
> wood burning stove and cut wood twice a week. We heated with wood for 7
> years, until I quit teaching and began my computer consulting business.
> Nowto my point: To calm public fear the Oil companies ran a nation wide ad
> in 1973 claiming that there "was no energy shortage" and **at the present
> rate of consumption** we had 600 years of Coal and Oil left. The high
> priceswere simple a "supply" problem, but the Oil companies didn't mind
> making RECORD profits on it, just like the Oil companies are doing today.
>
> Then, came the 1987 energy crisis which triggered "Black Friday" on the
> stockmarkets. The Oil companies again placed another nation wide add
> explaining that there "was no energy shortage" and at the **present rate of
> consumption** we had 200 years of Coal and Oil left.
>
> Now, BOTH of those statements and estimates were true at the time, even
> though misleading. Now, 20 years later, that 200 years has evaporated and
> we believe that the world will be deep into the down side of Oil within 40
> years or less. The problem with those statements is that they MISREPRESENT
> the fact that the rate of consumption is NOT a constant, but is constantly
> increasing. That's why we could loose 550 years of Coal and Oil in only 35
> years. Not only is the RATE at which 1st world countries are consuming oil
> INCREASING, more and more countries are wanting the life style that comes
> with using energy at that rate, so the rate of increase is also increasing
> because there are MORE people demanding Coal, Oil and Gas and they want to
> burn it at the same rate per capita as the West does.
>
> Here is a primer on exponential growth rates related to population and
> fossilfuel consumption:
> http://www.npg.org/specialreports/bartlett_index.htm[1]
> "Forgotten Fundamentals of the Energy Crisis"
>
> A good measure of oil production and consumption is the one often used by
> theoil industry. (I was an analytical chemist for Bradford Labs, a
> subsidiary of the Calgon Corporation, out of an office in Abilene, Tx in the
> early and mid 1960s. Bradford serviced the oil production companies.) It
> is"yield per foot drilled". In the early part of the 20th century, US oil
> production was about 4,000 barrels of Oil per foot drilled. Now it is less
> than one, meaning it is costing more in energy to drill for oil than the
> costof the oil produced. The following read describes how our oil was
> found,developed and produced, and how much of it we have left.
> http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:lqC4EpDyo6QJ:rationalangle.blogspot.com/
> 2008/01/deepwater-oil-production-key-to
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -supply.html+barrels+oil+per+foot+drilled&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=17&gl=us&client=fir
> -a[2]
>
> The WHOLE problem is POPULATION:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdOk521m9WA[3]
>
>
>
>
>
> --- Links ---
> 1 http://www.npg.org/specialreports/bartlett_index.htm
> 2
> http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:lqC4EpDyo6QJ:rationalangle.blogspot.com/2008/01/deepwater-oil-production-key-to-supply.html+barrels+oil+per+foot+drilled&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=17&gl=us&client=firefox-a
> 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdOk521m9WA
>
> ----
> Husker Linux Users Group mailing list
> To unsubscribe, send a message to huskerlug-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> with a subject of UNSUBSCRIBE
>
>
----
Husker Linux Users Group mailing list
To unsubscribe, send a message to huskerlug-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with a subject of UNSUBSCRIBE
Other related posts:
