[TML] [OT] One for Gun Safty

[Shawn Wilson]

    > But all the talk of using the petro-gases requires being able to get them.
> Some comes from oil production, but the whole point is to move away from
> dependence, so we need to *manufacture* it, using renewable energy &
> feedstock sources.
   
   
   
  Why?  Gas is cheap and convenient to use, therefore we use it.  Why should we 'move away' from it?  Are you planning on inventing something cheaper and easier?
   
   
  BTW hysteria aside, no we will *never* run out.  Economies don't work that way.  Rising extraction costs cause a gradual transition to the next cheaper alternative.  There is never a discontinuity.  (this is rather important, capitalism makes anticipated discontinuities impossible, any anticipated effects are fully amortized in the present)
   
   
  

> And do we have time before oil runs out to go straight to the *ideal*
> solution, or do we need an intermediate step.
   
   
  Well, in that we literally have *forever*...
   
  Gasoline is, believe it or not, a renewable resource.  We currently make it from petroleum because petroleum is cheap.  After petroleum becomes too expensive to be worth extracting we have waiting in the wings oil sands, tar shales, coal, methane ices, and just making gas directly from organic waste.  The worst case scenario is gas costing $4.25 a gallon, which is the real world price of making it from garbage and selling it retail.
   
   
  
> But the fact remains, that one day all the easily portable sources of energy
> will have been mined out of this planet and we will have to eather come up
> with a susstainable and renewable energy system or we will be back to living
> in caves.
   
   
  Yeah, well the time frame is 200,000 years, counting only proven deposits and existing technology and assuming everyone in the world consumes as much energy as the average American and there are 8 billion total...  (yes, uranium from seawater and breeder reactors, if you're curious).  
   
  I suspect in 200,000 years we can successfully mine other planets, so the real issue is only the life expectancy of the Sun.

       
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