do you want to pay less for gas L@@K here

[P. Nelson]

Ya know, This whole impending economic crash is one of the reasons that I decided to start learning how to blacksmith. The way that I figure it, if this should ever happen, anyone who is skilled at hitting hot metal is going to become a valuable comodity. At least they could be.

 

[ddavelarsen]

yeah, chicks dig recumbents! not! ...adds a certain geek factor to riding a bicycle...

Lot's of people wave when I'm riding down the road...sometimes with 5 fingers showing and sometimes with only one! ...something about get out of the road and onto the sidewalk? seriously though, it's amusing how ignorant people are to the laws governing bicycles riding in the road...it's like they didn't pay attention to drivers education classes or actually don't have a real clue... Bicycle riders are supposed to ride in traffic and obey all laws of an automobile. It's a kind of sweet revenge to see the price of gas rise in some ways... I know it'll have other economic impacts that won't be good, but a small part of me smiles when one of those huge SUV driving yuppie soccer moms who is so impatient flies around me with the horn blasting...

I may be in my mid 30s, but I'm still a kid at heart, who loves to ride his bicycle...now, it's starting to pay off!



-Darren

That's all good stuff! Now who'd have thought that a recumbent - must be the coolest invention since wheels - would be a geek thing? I guess that's a serious statement where my head is (a very dark place, apparently ). But I really dig recumbents. I think if I was going to build one I'd do some things differently than I typically see, but the idea really appeals to me.

I know exactly what you mean about the SUV power moms - and they're the ones who'll never see trouble coming and whine like crazy when their house gets cold - or hot. That kind of cavalier attitude towards oil has always bothered me, just not enough to make me sweat it out on an actual bicycle. I just drive my wife's 14-year-old Prism and enjoy the mileage. We keep the nice car parked mostly, only take it out on dates or short trips. I drove it a couple hundred miles this weekend and never actually felt guilty for using extra fuel - but I did get a little reminder when I topped it off when I got home...

I'm going to seriously think how I might use a bike. My commute is far too long but there are any number of errands that I could do in our neighborhood without ever starting up a car, and I really appreciate the heads up. Honestly never gave it serious consideration - at least until I started reading about peak oil. I don't know anyone who actually uses a bicycle routinely, but I thought a lot about all those pics of Chinese people riding bikes everywhere when I started thinking about ramifications of no fuel. I think my kids and grandkids are going to use a lot of public transportation and walk and ride bikes etc a whole lot more than we have.

When we were in Mexico a couple months ago I was struck by how many people ride three-wheeled bikes - two wheels in front with a basket mounted in front of the handle bars. No one was in a hurry but they were getting a lot of transporting done. Very cool. Many of those bikes could easily have been hand-me-downs for at least one generation. Simplicity is a good thing, and ugly never bothered me a great deal. (Well, for things like working transportation; I admit there are a number of aspects of life in which beauty counts... )

Even though there are probably not any more giant fields hiding out there, there are some other sources we will probably utilize:
1. Canada has some significant reserves that are in tar sands where the technology is being developed.
2. The Colorado Plateau in western Colorado and eastern Utah has a great amount of immature Hydrocarbons tied up in what we call oil shales. Projects were under way 25 years ago to work out how to heat and mature this into crude, mostly by setting fires underground and cooking the shale. These projects got cancelled when the Reagan administration came into office.
3. The abyssal plains in the deep ocean basins have a great amount of Methane (natural gas) tied up in water ice in muddy sediments in the sea floor. They call this methane hydrate. At present we have no way to extract it.
4. There is an abundance of coal deposits around the world. The thirst for gasoline will undoubtedly drive research into finding economic methods for coal gasification.

These alternative methods of producing oil are not online now and will not be ready for many years, probably decades. They will only come of age with ever higher fuel costs.

People talk about Hydrogen fuel cells as a saving technology, but ignore the fact that they require methane as the source of the Hydrogen. There is practically unlimited Hydrogen in the sea water, but it takes as much energy to crack the covalent bonds in H2O as you can get from burning the H2

Steve, you are undoubtedly right. I don't think we're at all likely to begin to develop the technology to render these deposits useful until we're in a crisis, and then like you said it could take decades to make things work efficiently. I used to be one of those who got all excited about fuel cells until I learned that it takes almost as much energy to make the hydrogen as it delivers. But there are a number of promising new processes being studied that may make hydrogen inexpensive enough to use eventually - just maybe not when we're going to need it most desperately. The promise of fuel cells isn't as rosy as some would paint but it's such an ideal power source that I think there will be enough research to make it work sooner rather than later. There really are a lot of smart people working on it.

In all, I have great faith in human ingenuity. Sometimes I get caught up in the doomsayer's drama but after a few days' reflection recall that we are the ultimate survivors. No other animal has been as adaptable as we have and I don't see any reason that we'd drop this one completely either.

I think our lives are going to be very different than they are now though, and probably much sooner than any of us expect. Assuming the worst, folks who can make good tools are likely to become rather valuable to their communities. That probably puts us all in a good place.

 

[Dan Gray]

well if you want to look at it this way
are and have been in the mist of change
ask the grampaws of yester year.. they have seen changes some of us wonder at and our kids will never know.. once the money is gone out of it we will find another way.. water power it's a never ending source of power
the tides work 2 times a day I've often wondered why we don't use them
here in Maine we have 12 foot tides , That is an amazing amount of water power I know how it can be used and very cheaply.. but it won't happen until there is no more money to be made in oil
the stock holders will not let it happen,,,, only happen when the last drop is used..the rich will have the last drops..sucking up their own profits , .greed breeds their own down fall. I doubt it,,,, cool thought though