Thommy H:
“No one else is doing it” is hardly a reason not to do the right thing 
Willmark:
You’re preaching to the choir here. Im merely pointing out that if China or India skips this its not going to matter.
Khan!:
I’m with Thommy H on this one. It doesn’t matter if India and China want to frak up their countries, that is no reason not to change our behaviour. China has rivers that are running purple because of the effluent. The Yangzi doesn’t support fish life anymore. Cancer rates are skyrocketing in industrial towns. Is that what the rest of the world wants? Even if we get there slower?
Here in Alberta the gasoline prices are about $1.20/litre. Northern Alberta houses the oilsands, which is one of the largest oil-producing operations in the world. The trouble is that, even here in Alberta - most prosperous province in Canada perhaps - the hole in the planet that has been torn up by the oilsands can be seen from the moon*! We have lakes of effluent and toxic waste here in what used to be the Northern Boreal Forest that are seeping into the groundwater and basically cause cancer if you come in contact with them - to local wildlife, they just look like lakes until it’s too late, so the oil companies have to jump through a lot of hoops to keep birds away, but when their efforts fail (as they have in one instance just in the past week), the fine is chump change; something like $1 000 000 for failing to prevent direct wildlife contamination, to companies whose profits are in the billions. Not much of a deterrent, if you ask me.
If rising gas prices and financial discomfort are what it takes to change our destructive behaviour, then I’m cool with that.
As for running out of oil soon, I know that at current rates of consumption the Middle East has enough oil for the next 100 years (at current rates of consumption). There are also tremendous untapped reserves opening up in the arctic regions of Canada due to climate change, along with the oil sands in Alberta, oil sands development starting in Saskatchewan, offshore oil on the east coast, and so on and so on. I dunno if we are going to run out all that quickly - certainly not within our lifetimes.
cornixt:
No matter how bad China is at the moment or will be, the USA still produces more than them right now. Saying “We’re bad, but they might be worse in the future, so we won’t try to improve ourselves” is just silly.
Kera foehunter:
well i think it the oil co. buying out are goverments.they could stop all this but when you get a kick back from them they have free range on prices!!!don’t get me on the bull of living green !!!
me and my people live this way . hey where poor people we have to live green.
Thommy H:
There are also tremendous untapped reserves opening up in the arctic regions of Canada due to climate changeIsn't this a bit like that scene in The Simpsons where Bart kept reaching for the muffin even though it electrocuted him?
torn:
the US might dig up the most oil the most but china uses the most, by a very very large margin.
at the end of the day its money making the whole thing happen. some people get rich off oil, so it stays. its the same with cigarettes, they will never be completely banned because they make money for all the right people to keep them going.
its the same with anything, if you want people to stop drilling or oil consumers have to stop buying it, which means no transport of any kind, no food for a lot of the western world due o there being no transport, and lastly nothing plastic bought at oil. that would mean no plastic models, paints we use, brushes, bases, practically this whole hobby runs on oil. the computers we are using now are made from processed oil. i cant see a reversion back to more natural sources for these sort of things any time soon.
asheira:
buy hybrid cars!
Thommy H:
its the same with anything, if you want people to stop drilling or oil consumers have to stop buying it, which means no transport of any kind, no food for a lot of the western world due o there being no transport, and lastly nothing plastic bought at oil. that would mean no plastic models, paints we use, brushes, bases, practically this whole hobby runs on oil. the computers we are using now are made from processed oil. i cant see a reversion back to more natural sources for these sort of things any time soon.That's what I mean by "paradigm shift". We're stuck in a civilisation entirely dependent on fossil fuels. It's going to take an enormous, society-shattering change to save us from ourselves here. It's not going to be easy - it might even be impossible.
Kera foehunter:
I dont buy it !!! China was using more oil in 2000 than they do now they also had to decline oil uses do to the high prices… thats so funny where is iraq oil going !!!
cornixt:
If the fusion power station works then electricity will be cheaper and cleaner. Then the rechargable battery manufacturers can cash in for a change!
wallacer:
We may have passed the Hubbert Peak, but that is not the core impetus for increasing oil prices. Other factors such as political instablilty in key regions, government taxation on fuel (and cars), and lack of refining capacity drive fuel prices up at least as much (probably more so) than diminishing oil reserves.
Governments could do more to help alleviate the effect of higher fuel prices on their citizens, but they choose not to because they’ve been brainwashed by the eco-lobbies.
At least the U.S. and U.K. have the ability to drill some of their own oil. Over here we have to import the whole damned lot.
Khan!:
Yeah, pretty much! The point that I was trying to make though is that unfortunately I don't think we can rely on running out of fossil fuels in order to force a paradigm shift.There are also tremendous untapped reserves opening up in the arctic regions of Canada due to climate changeIsn't this a bit like that scene in The Simpsons where Bart kept reaching for the muffin even though it electrocuted him?
Thommy H
Willmark:
Ethanol FTW!
Whilel not ready for a complete replacement of oil, it shows promise as do bio fuels, That is where we should be spending money rather then drilling more oil.
Thommy H:
they've been brainwashed by the eco-lobbiesI never understood this line of argument. What does anyone have to gain from convincing people not to use fossil fuels if the threat isn't real? The oil companies and governments are all making money from the stuff, so we know they have an incentive to play down the ecological damage caused by its use, but what possible ulterior motive could someone who's asking people to go out of their way and sacrifice their quality of life to save the planet have?
No one makes money off reducing fossil fuel usage. It's going to suck for everyone, short-term. There's no incentive besides altruism, so why would they be lying? Even if they're wrong, they must be sincere, since they have no more to gain than anyone else by changing things.
torn:
At least the U.S. and U.K. have the ability to drill some of their own oil. Over here we have to import the whole damned lot.here in the UK we dont actually use our own oil, for some reason its cheaper to export the stuff we get from the north sea and then buy what we need from the middle east.
wallacer
i think in terms of powering buildings we are going down the right route. there are wind farms and nuclear stations all over the place up here, but to build these facilities in the first place you still need to use big machines, which all run of diesel. lets face it if an electric car barely moves then its fair to say an electric earth mover isnt gong to be much of a success. i think the only real solution would be to revert back to self sufficient small communities, using nothing but natural local resources. I cant see this happening at all though.
Khan!:
Again, I agree with Thommy H. As for biofuel, that’s just contributing to the worsening food crisis. It might have fewer emissions, but it’s still unsustainable, it seems.
Thommy H:
Let’s face it, we’ve just got too many people on this planet right now. That’s all it comes down to. Demand for everything has started to outstrip supply. It’s going to take something as radical as moving out into space to change things.
Willmark:
Could be right. In the past diseases served to check the population. Not that we would want to go through a pandemic the scale of the Black Death of the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1919…
Grish:
Personally I hope the price of fossil fuel skyrockets. There will be a stronger push to better technologies (nanotech solar panelling).
Fossil fuel is what, 200 years old now? We have better stuff. The cost to produce, to transport, and use (financial and environmental) is ridiculous. I hope gas goes up to $20/gal. We will take a better look at how we structure our cities, our landscape.
The car is old technology, and we build our entire landscape around it. There are better solutions!