uwnews.washington.edu — If you think the world is on the verge of running out of oil or other mineral resources, you've been taken in by the foremost of seven myths about resource geology, according to a University of Washington economic geologist.
Oct 20, 2006 View in Crawl 4
jorgegtOct 20, 2006
I'm sure we are already doing it. Do you think omnipotent oil companies will find their reserves depleted and just say "OK guys, no more oil, we are all out of bussiness" and then vanish? All their power and money will be no more? Will you see their CEO's saying "now it's time to buy that beach hotel in México and start a brand new life"? I think not. Corporations are not that easy to vanish. As long as we need energy, they will be there. Are you thinking cool alternative scientists will automatically rule the energy production after oil disappears? Wake up!
quickjackOct 20, 2006
More expensive oil will lead consumers to other alternatives.At $2 or $3 per gallon many consumers thought twice about buying gas guzzling suvs.At $5 many consumers would likely opt for motorcycles or subcompact cars.Also emerging technlogies like fuel cells will be more competitive. Add the increasing efficiency and impact of hybrids and ethanol/vegetable oils, we will have ready supplies of fuel for years to come.
pevailOct 21, 2006
To Sensoukami-What a childish and uninformed comment.-Just think-even though your I.Q. is in the room temperature range,you should be able to understand that if a goverrnment is willing to kill over 500,000 Iraquis for oil,killing someone who would threaten the very existence of the oil industry and trillions of dollars worth of business is a very probable scenario.--by the way there are hundreds of patents for zero point energy in the US patent office.
tonicboyOct 21, 2006
@quickjack-No one is arguing that the world will run out of various fuels, fossil or otherwise. But there is no single oil alternative that isn't 5-10 times more expensive than oil. Even with refinements and advancements, it is likely that anything else we come up with will be at least twice as expensive as oil. We will have energy, it will just be damned expensive. This by itself is enough to send the world into recession.
rishabhnasaOct 21, 2006
One of the great things about Digg is that comments tell you more about the topic than the article.
thorsethOct 22, 2006
The last I heard was that we now are using 4 times the amount of oil being discovered (sorry no link) and the difference is widening - It shouldn't require much imagination to see where that will lead us.With higher oil prices the world economy is going to suffer and that is going to hurt all - not just people driving SUVs.
stevensj2Nov 16, 2006
@edmcguirk:>>"Obsolete? It's not obsolete until something better exists."------------------------------------------------Precisely, yet you're assuming something better has not already been created. It might interest you to dig up some research and see that _several_ better things HAVE been invented.But, due to corporate corruption and our "dependency" on oil, automakers will (and do!) take measures to put a hush on that - such as buyouts and payoffs with money. And considering how the US has placed automotive industries as the foothold of the economy, you can bet they have a lot of it.It's no surprise that the government (who makes war for oil) encourages automakers to do whatever it takes to keep using oil, in turn discouraging anything that would dare to replace it.
rocketpocketNov 17, 2006
I love my converted plug-in prius. I only drive 6 miles to the train every day so I remain on battery power the hole time. I also by all my electricity from PECO wind power. So I guess I'm not really to dependent on oil. So I could care less about oil prices.