The Coming Oil Apocalypse

[Saras]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
In other news, there was a story out today about how Ford and Chevy are getting beat up pretty bad in their truck and SUV market.

I say GOOD ! Maybe it will teach these companies a lesson and respond to once to what consumers ****ing want.

Toyota Prius is flying off the lot, turnaround time for a Prius is down to about 4 hours. That means as soon as the dealer gets it, it's gone in 4 hours.

Toyota and Honda are recording record sales quarters.

Both of these companies proactively built more fuel efficiency into their cars and also cars that burn cleaner.

Ted praising the free market system

The healing has begun

[Tau Ceti]

Originally posted by Colon
Has humanity ever gotten to the point it exhausted a resource? (serious question)

Mammoths?

[DanS]

I can only think of renewable resources that we have exhausted. Like overfishing, etc.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Colon
Has humanity ever gotten to the point it exhausted a resource? (serious question)

We've sure exploited some species to extinction.

[Colonâ„¢]

Originally posted by Saras


Ted praising the free market system

The healing has begun

Didn't California had this law forcing car-manufacturers to sell an x-percentage of cars on fuel cells by 2000-something-something?

[Colonâ„¢]

Originally posted by DanS
I can only think of renewable resources that we have exhausted. Like overfishing, etc.

Not globally, there's still fish around.

[MosesPresley]

Originally posted by Colon
Has humanity ever gotten to the point it exhausted a resource? (serious question)

It is thought that Easter Island was once covered with trees. The residents exhausted that resource in the making and transportation of their statues. After the trees were gone, their society degenerated into war and cannibalism leaving few people and the enigmatic statues that we see today.

[Lul Thyme]

There's still species of fish that don't exist any more. If not other animals for sure.

The point that there are not really any ressources that we dried up is kinda true though.
We talked about this on the previous oil thread no? How the iron age ended before we were lacking iron, same with coal age and the same will happen with the oil age.
I'm not trying to argue that we should just sit on our ass, we should focus on other kinds of energy.

Some people here argue that the market will bring those to the foreground by itself.
That may be true, but it will probably do a lot more damage to the environment that way that if gov.s and ppl focus more on them that just the price.

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Colon
Has humanity ever gotten to the point it exhausted a resource? (serious question)

Cryolite - though it can be made artificially.

http://www.mineralszone.com/minerals/cryolite.html

[Colonâ„¢]

Originally posted by MosesPresley


It is thought that Easter Island was once covered with trees. The residents exhausted that resource in the making and transportation of their statues. After the trees were gone, their society degenerated into war and cannibalism leaving few people and the enigmatic statues that we see today.

I meant globally (hence the "humanity"), and I was sort of thinking of non-renewables as well.

[Colonâ„¢]

Originally posted by BlackCat


Cryolite - though it can be made artificially.

http://www.mineralszone.com/minerals/cryolite.html

And marble? I once heard it no longer could be found either. (although that was when I was just a little boy, and I've been rather sceptical of it ever since)

[Flubber]

Originally posted by DanS


Well now. Surely, if you can figure out that the Saudis are giving out bad information, market participants who are "on the ground" can figure it out too.

It might take years to figure out if the saudis are giving bad information about their reserves but we would surely know long before any area "ran out" of oil.

I think most folks don't understand that most oil fields productions will decline over time. A given well might produce for 10 years but by year 3, production from that well is half what it had been originally. A well does not ever really "run out" since a large proportion of oil remains trapped in the reservor. Instead what happens is that the rate of production finally gets so low as to be uneconomic.

It is my understanding that many small wells have been re-entered, often using new injection techniques. These were wells that were "tapped out" but the reality is that they were tapped out at $20-$25 per barrell but are viable at $40 or $50. The same thing happens to larger projects-- Additional efforts and expenditures are now worthwhile that weren't before


As for the long term, we still have very little idea as to the prospectivity of large portions of this planet. There are unexploered basins offshore north America and deep-water areas we are just touching.

Lets for the sake of argument say that there was 20 years known supply already found at a given price. Well when you double that price longer term , you will

a)curtail demand somewhat
b) make economic additional extraction measures
c)make economic all sorts of wind, solar and hydro power

I'm betting that within 2 years at a higher price, your 20 years of oil has become 25 or 30 through a conmbination of these factors and without necessarily finding ANY new oil

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Colon


And marble? I once heard it no longer could be found either. (although that was when I was just a little boy, and I've been rather sceptical of it ever since)

I would be very sceptical too

http://www.mineralszone.com/natural-stones/marble.html

[DanS]

It is my understanding that many small wells have been re-entered, often using new injection techniques. These were wells that were "tapped out" but the reality is that they were tapped out at $20-$25 per barrell but are viable at $40 or $50. The same thing happens to larger projects-- Additional efforts and expenditures are now worthwhile that weren't before

Yes, what you talk about "injection", I know of as "hydro-frac'ing" -- i.e., cracking (fracturing) the stone or sand with water or chemicals in order that the oil will flow to the pump at the bottom of the well. You can re-hydrofrac an old well with the new technologies/chemicals. My dad has had some success doing this, but I'm not sure how widespread the practice has become in the last year or two with high oil prices.

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse




So: the Earth loses more angular momentum...to the moon, because...according to you, pulling an insignificant amount of water out of the ocean drives higher tides?

I did not say that. I said that the water causes more tidal friction in the dam than it would in the oceans.

You obviously have no clue as to the dynamics of this situation.

Please explain to me how:

1) The movement of a small, permanently standing pool of water from one spot to another on the globe drives an ever increasing loss of angular momentum on the Earth

I did not say anything about "ever increasing".

2) The hydroelectric generation of power would not work just as well on a planet with no satellite and no rotation

Becuase all the volatiles would freeze out on the night side.

Until then, your explanation of rotational motion as the motive force behind hydro generation is just so much nonsense.

Problems with reading comprehension, er? I did not say that rotational motion is the motive force between hydro generation. The only thing I've said about the energy source behind hydroelectrics is that it's irrelevant. What I did say is that dams eat into the rotational energy of the planet.

The source of the energy remains, as always, solar energy converted into thermal energy, converted into gravitational potential energy, converted into kinetic energy, converted into electrical energy.

Repeating this does not make it any more relevant.