[extropy-chat] POLITICS: oil and strategies

[Eugen Leitl]

On Fri, Jun 25, 2004 at 07:12:58PM -0700, Spike wrote:

> Yes to all this, and besides, we need no professors.  The

Nonsense. Organic photovoltaics, fuel cells (the electrolyte and cheap
catalyst), fuel reforming, high-efficiency electrolysis, power electronics,
electric propulsion, biomass-to-methanol conversion, water photolysis and
artificial photosynthesis are all in their infancy. A lot of this will become
feasible due to molecular nanotechnology, so it will need funds, too.

We have totally neglected necessary efforts in R&D for the past 30-40 years.
Things are easier now, but if we don't start *yesterday* we won't be there
within 1-2 generations. I'm going to point and laugh if we'll run into major
market turmoil and energy/resource wars due to peak oil. It's not that any of
this was unpredictable, eh.

> science is already in place, has been for a long time.  We
> know what needs to be done.  To get to energy independence
> we just need to build the windmills, the PV farms, grow the

Semiconductor PV isn't all that great an idea.

> corn.  Right now oil is so cheap and the infrastructure is 

Corn is not a good idea. Sustainable biomass production needs diversity and
sustainability at low energy input. Corn is neither.

> so well developed, the other stuff cannot compete.  
> 
> Look a few years into the future of energy technology.  China
> is coming up, as is India.  Those nations have over a billion
> people each, and they are eager to industrialize to western
> standards.  Oil can only get more expensive, which will give

What will happen, if oil will get more expensive? A lot more expensive?
Suddenly? The very rich and the very poor won't be affected. But the rest of
us (that's a lot actually) will. And kiss the growth goodbye, and source of
necessary funds for R&D. You can't pull out the sustainability rabbit out of
the hat overnight.

> alternate sources a chance.  Truly, we are on the eve of 
> construction.

You could start by voting Bush out of office.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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