tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2473166537823294555.post6284850555752412763..comments2023-11-02T06:04:23.552-04:00Comments on Back to the Drawing Board: I Don't Get the Whole "Peak Oil" Thing...Dannyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14933199894935324897noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2473166537823294555.post-81504570873786004902009-07-13T11:27:41.429-04:002009-07-13T11:27:41.429-04:00What if we need awesomite to extract awesomite? If...What if we need awesomite to extract awesomite? If you don't go for the "oil is created from lava" theory, when the oil runs out we would have to go to gas and coal. When they run out, I suppose nuclear, assuming we convert all our vehicles to run on electricity, which would be hard to do when batteries require such rare elements. The problem is not the depletion of oil so much as it is the depletion of everything. Once ancient super-energy-rich fuels are finished, we are left with much slower attempts to harvest energy from light, without solar panels (since mining and batteries are effectively off the table).<br /><br />Already biofuels are pushing up food prices and people are starving: the price mechanism will do a lot of damage as rich car owners use poor people's food as fuel.<br /><br />Perhaps our high energy fuels will last long enough for us to find some "future tech" to perpetuate our comfortable lifestyles - or else life will become much harder for most people. Well I guess life is already very hard for most people.Leslie Viljoenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15233466167221815533noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2473166537823294555.post-17970770159341116692009-06-14T12:25:56.029-04:002009-06-14T12:25:56.029-04:00I think another problem (in the eyes of the elite)...I think another problem (in the eyes of the elite) with peak oil is that the US is built upon a centralized economy where products are produced halfway around the world for pennies on the dollar and shipped to the US where the price is inflated and the capitalists get rich. As oil prices continue to rise, the cost for everything in the US will increase dramatically until a new manufacturing base is created in local economies. <br /><br />But this signals the end of the US hegemony, and the end of our capitalist/mercantalist economy. Approximately 70% of our economy is consumption, which means 70% of our economy will crash since most people's jobs can only be considered productive in insofar as they rely on the exploitation of foreign economies.Radical Hipponoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2473166537823294555.post-30804612480112801902009-06-14T01:11:53.715-04:002009-06-14T01:11:53.715-04:00Concerning another vital resource, water, which ha...Concerning another vital resource, water, which has no alternative, I've often wondered about something: why is it so damn cheap if it is always in danger of running out (I live in CA and that's the constant headline)? I pay about $35/month for my water usage and I don't ration it. I take long showers, run the water in the sink while I shave and floss etc. I simply don't conserve water. Why? Despite a general desire not to waste a rare resource, I simply don't have the financial incentive to make me slow down. I love long, hot showers and $35 isn't going to make me stop.<br /><br />Why, if water is about to run out if the rain doesn't come, does water <i>seem</i> so cheap? Are the drought scares exaggerated? Are governments interfering to artificially lower the price or are markets merely reflecting the best price given the scarcity? Is this an example of "take a few deep breath"?<br /><br />Also, do you think that market prices ever have a tendency to underestimate future shortages so that they systematically undervalue a resource thereby speeding up the drain? It seems reasonable to expect people to underestimate bad outcomes and overestimate good ones. They also tend to value the present over the future. People don't miss things until they are gone, so to speak.Neverfoxhttp://insteadofablog.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2473166537823294555.post-13475757225590365552009-06-13T11:17:10.306-04:002009-06-13T11:17:10.306-04:00Good post.
People who worry about "running o...Good post.<br /><br />People who worry about "running out" of oil (e.g. the 17-year old me) simply do not understand the basics of supply and demand. Once you learn that markets clear, resource depletion becomes a non-problem.<br /><br />"As we start to actually run low on oil, suppliers will be hard pressed to meet market demand with their current resources. Prices will rise, people will cut back, and currently uneconomical oil resources will come into production. When prices rise high enough, alternative fuels will begin to make sense, and we will start to see a transition away from oil in applications where substitutes can be utilized efficiently."<br /><br />A persistent doomster, however, will respond that "this cannot go on forever; continuous growth cannot be sustained in a finite world!"<br /><br />But this view implicitly relies on a scientistic, objective, static theory of resources, which leads to a depletionist conclusion.<br /><br />The correct (Austrian) theory, which is subjectivist, functional, and dynamic, on the other hand gives us an expansionist conclusion: the limits to growth are vague and porous, if they exist at all.<br /><br />See <a href="http://www.politicalcapitalism.com/aboutrb/Resourceship.pdf" rel="nofollow">"Resourceship"</a> by Robert Bradley.Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16615367646825440024noreply@blogger.com