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Peak oil
Dermbrian:
RollingStone.Com Article
www.peakoil.com
In the mid 1960's, I used to love watching a TV show called "The 21st Century" as a kid. It was hosted by Walter Cronkite and sponsored by Union Carbide. It painted a rosy picture of the world of the future. Air cars. Giant computers. The end of illnesses.
I can't form a strong opinion about most environmental issues, because I don't have the science background. If you believe industry, the environmentalists are wacko. If you believe enivronmentalists, industries are. Unfortunately our representative goverment doesn't seem capable of doing the unbiased science to let us know the truth. But again, that's all just opinion.
Now, if the world is about to, or has already, have demand exceed production of fossil fuels as those same fields begin to go in decline, I think I can form an opinion. My opinion is that this is a huge problem that will affect us all. Especially my wonderful kids.
I used to envision only two futures: Bladerunner (most likely....unchecked capitalism) or Star Trek (most desireable...world of plenty with new discoveries to keep life interesting).
After just giving this a little thought, I suddenly think I've been totally blind to the real likely future of an overpopulated planet running out of the energy that allowed the population to explode in the first place.
Please help me get back to "don't worry, be happy....it's just a bunch of wackos that are talking trash" or let me know that humanity will find a way to get through this.
Brian
Bones:
There are clean free energy sources all around us. The oil companies and their trillion dollar business monopolise the development of free energy due to greed.
I don't think the Earths future will be like Bladerunner or Star Trek. I think it will be a barren desolate world free of humans and with little natural resources for the food chain to recover for a very long time.
I reckon this will be the state of the Earth in as little as 500-1000 years and I also believe we are past the point of no return.
Maybe in another 100 million years some species will do it all again.
Grasshopper:
I'm inclined to agree with you. It's difficult to be anything but pessimistic about the environment.
SirPeale:
There was an article on Slashdot not long ago regarding a new process for making gasoline and other petroleum products from organic waste. It was a relatively simple process, relying on heat and pressure, and it did it fairly cheaply. The caveat was, pretty much, that since there were only a few of these places, it wouldn't make a dent in the needs of the country.
RayB:
While I too used to love the idea of the "Star Trek" utopian ideals, they are unattainable.
In the Star Trek universe (and I assume we're talking The Next Generation here right?) the idea is that there's no need for money, and people can pursue the careers they dream of, for the sake of personal satisfaction rather than money. (And replicators make it easy to acquire anything a person might want, which wipes out capitalism).
The thing is, what happens to the lazy people? Who cleans the hallways of the Enterprise? (Why is it we never see janitorial staff on those shows?) If people are free to follow careers for personal satisfaction, who will do the menial jobs?
And with replication technology, those replicators won't be free. And they'll need "matter" to construct stuff with, so capitalism won't go away. And people will be needed to design the stuff replicators make.
Sorry if I'm a little off topic here.... ;D