[huskerlug] Re: A 100 watt laptop requires 960 lbs of coal per year!

  • From: "Derek J. Augustine" <derek@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: huskerlug@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:09:50 -0500

You know, I think these little buggers have potential for the next 
source of oil.

http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?ch=specialsections&sc=biofuels&id=19128&a=

By the sound of that article, these little guys got us covered.

Derek

tw wrote:
> 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
>>
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