Here are some questions for all you energy optimists to consider: Nuclear energy ---------------
Where are you going to put the radioactive waste and who is going to watch over it for the next 100,000 years? How much will storage and long term security cost? And what about the inevitable accidents and cleanup? How will you mine, process, and transport the Uranium when oil costs over $150 per barrel? Will it still be possible to build a nuclear power plant then? And who will be willing to invest all that money? How will the end of cheap oil effect the overall operating expenses and final cost per megawatt from nuclear energy? How long will our supply of uranium last? (It's a very rare element and hard to extract without modern technology.) How would you like to go work in a uranium mine with a pick and a shovel? (I figure that's what they'll do with criminals instead of executing them.) Like I said before, without oil our entire industrial society stops dead in its tracks. Renewable energy sources (wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, hydrogen, etc.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- These are fine on a very limited scale but they don't even come close to matching the millions of years of solar energy collected and stored in fossil fuels. Most of these technologies are energy sinks that will never come close to producing the amount of energy we currently consume to run our industrial society. They might come in handy after the crash, if anyone survives the petroleum wars. The other 5.5 billion people are not going to sit there and die quietly while the US and Europe finishes off what's left of the oil. Another question: how are you going to build fuel cells, photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, electric cars, etc. without the cheap energy and massive industrial capabilities we now enjoy? It's going to be blacksmiths and mules all over again. If you want to explore this topic further please start with the web site I recommended and do a little research from there. http://www.dieoff.com/synopsis.htm You are welcome to e-mail me privately about this, but I thing we are getting too far a field for the EUGLUG list. Dexter Graphic What's the difference between ignorance and apathy? ...I don't know and I don't care!
