Are we running out of fossil fuels? - peak oil theory

[CDsdad]

Well, I'm 200 miles offshore in 7000' of water. It's hot but the water level ain't rising, we're burning a lot of diesel to keep this hunk of junk running, and we been here almost 4 months and haven't drilled this well yet. So if all rigs run like this one (they don't fortunately), we'll use more diesel, oil, and grease to drill this well than it will produce. By that guesstimation you'd think we'd be out of fossil fuels by Christmas.

 

[hockeypuck]

I hope you hit the mother load so we can put idiots like iran out of business. Go CS go!

 

[MossRoad]

The arrogance the we aren't contributing to part of the situation.
The arrogance that we can continue with our lifestyle without consequences. The arrogance that is is our god given right to consume more resources than the have-nots because we earned it and they were born without it, have no way to earn their way out of it, and therefore have to suffer the consequences that the "haves" have caused in the form of pollution by their excessive use.

It just seems there is a huge portion of the TBN membership that thinks people aren't contributing to the environmental situation in any way, shape or form and there is nothing they can do to lessen their impact on the environment, nor should they even try. Go down to the river and watch the turds and toilet paper float by after a large rain and tell me how that is a natural cycle of the earth. Watch the mercury pile up in the mud at the river mouth (under the turd sediment, of course) and tell me how that is a natural cycle of the earth. Go to the shores of Indonesia and see the massive piles of ships that are being scrapped and see the envirnmental disaster that is happening there. It is everywhere, folks. The entire planet is being polluted by man. Heck, just try and walk down one mile of any road in America without finding a cigarette butt. You can't. People did that, not mother nature.

Oh, man, what a soap box I'm on. Sorry about the rant. Anyhow, just try and lessen your impact on the environment on a daily basis. Turn off some lights, convert some to flourescent, open your windows instead of turning on the air, wash full loads and plan trips ahead to minimize double trips for a loaf of bread. It ain't that hard and if everyone did it, it really can make a difference on our quality of life and what we will leave our children to deal with.

 

[cp1969]

If turds are pollution, then Man isn't the only one polluting.

 

[BobRip]

I view it as a fixed amount of freedom (in other words space, natural resources, energy, etc.) say 100 million units. When we had about 10 million people on the planet, there were 10 units per person. You had 1000% freedom to do what you want without impacting your neighbor who was so far away you did not know he existed. As the population grows we start impacting each other. We have to share this freedom with others. Governments respond by passing and enforcing laws. This restricts what we can do as individuals and as larger groups. The more people, the less freedom per person. Governments also respond by starting wars to obtain more freedom. Of course this takes resources and freedom and also destroys both. We can control our own population or let mother nature do it and she is a real bi..... and you don't want to be around for the plagues, famine, and war.

There are things we can do to help. More efficient machines, recycling and reuse, bring resources from space, technology improvements, better organization, more lawyers (just kidding), go live in space, birth control and others. Don't give up hope, but don't be surpised if your freedom level drops over time.

 

[turnkey4099]

That's a very metaphysical interpretation of 'fact'. Human history, and the history of science itself, is pretty much just a long list of 'facts' that weren't facts after all. So while your take on 'facts' might be correct, it does not consider our human propensity to mistake fact from theory, myth or faith.



Nah. We used to think the same sort of thing about time and light. We were wrong. If science has taught us anything it is that right here, right now, we are wrong about most of the things we believe to be 'scientifically proven.'


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No, history is replete with 'facts' that have been wrongly interpreted. The errors did not change the facts in the slightest. Most theories have been repeatedly modified and added to as time when on. A few theories have been proven wrong and were discared (again interpretation of the data, not the data itself) Don't confuse the interpretation of a fact with the reality of the fact.
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N80: I think some of us who have been labled 'complacent' are really just folks who believe that as a nation, and possibly a species, we can handle the changes in climate better than the attempts to change it back.

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IMO the best we can do on the GW front is to reduce our input to it. Return it to the level it was 10 years ago? Not even in one's best dreams.

Harry K

 

[dmccarty]

I read a tidbit of information in the WSJ last week. The article stated that we "started" with 12 trillion barrels, I think it was barrels of oil. Since we started pumping the stuff we have used about 1 trillion. We will use another trillion in the next 3-5 decades. Leaving 10 trillion. That 10 trillion is in hard to reach places and thus will cost more money to pump. I forgot the percentage, but its a big number, but a huge amount of oil is still in the fields that have "run" dry. Its just not economical to get the oil out and/or technically possible to pump it at this time.

Later,
Dan

 

[coffeeman]

I'm changing gears here a little. Something I wonder about. When I was a kid I and many others would swim in that river you speak of. It was loaded with the human crap and on top of it was tons of waste from the many mills up and down the river. My question; I don't ever remember anyone getting sick from this stuff. Were we stronger or more immune to disease or did folks just get sick and died and no one knew what happened. Today, someone eats lettuce that has a little cow poop on it and it causes 50 or 100 people to get sick. I don't get it?

Your part of post about saving energy is just good common sense with a side benifit of helping environment. I do mean "side benifit". Most folks care more for their $$ than environment. When I was paying a quarter a gallon for gas and I only had fifty cents to put in the tank.....guess what; I tried to save gas. In those days my folks preached on turning off the lights etc. I bet you can't guess who is singing , "turn of the lights" now? There will reach a point when it's so expensive for energy that we will actually save energy because it costs too much. I guess folks haven't been hit in the pocket enough. It will happen and it will hurt a lot of people, but we will adjust. "They" predict doom and gloom, it ain't gonna happen.

Cheers ... Coffeeman
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. Go down to the river and watch the turds and toilet paper float by after a large rain and tell me how that is a natural cycle of the earth. Watch the mercury pile up in the mud at the river mouth (under the turd sediment, of course) and tell me how that is a natural cycle of the earth.


Oh, man, what a soap box I'm on. Sorry about the rant. Anyhow, just try and lessen your impact on the environment on a daily basis. Turn off some lights, convert some to flourescent, open your windows instead of turning on the air, wash full loads and plan trips ahead to minimize double trips for a loaf of bread. It ain't that hard and if everyone did it, it really can make a difference on our quality of life and what we will leave our children to deal with.

 

[BobRip]

When I was a kid I and many others would swim in that river you speak of. It was loaded with the human crap and on top of it was tons of waste from the many mills up and down the river. My question; I don't ever remember anyone getting sick from this stuff. Were we stronger or more immune to disease or did folks just get sick and died and no one knew what happened. Today, someone eats lettuce that has a little cow poop on it and it causes 50 or 100 people to get sick. I don't get it?

.

I think people died from this stuff, but nobody put 2 + 2 together back them or we soon forget. We are much more sensitive to this stuff today and the government has plenty of money (I do remember giving it to them) to track stuff down. The number of deaths today are not huge. I remember hearing of thousands dying in Chicago when the sewage got into the water intake. This was the late 1800's. I am sure there are many other examples. These deaths drove many of the health measures that we take for granted today (clean water, sewage out of the steets, vacination, FDA regulation). The regulatory bodies that were created back then are still here today. I expect that we pay a lot more dollars per life saved today than we did then. Of course if you eliminated the FDA companies and governments would get careless and many people would die.

 

[tallyho8]

In many third world countries, vegetables are fertilized with human excrement. These people do not get sick from it because they have developed an immunity over the years. Many Americans who have been "sanitized" over the years would die consuming these same veggies.