[ExI] Automotive problems

[Robert Bradbury]

>
> The oil bubble (to a large extent based on the reality of peak oil
> production) is a major reason things came apart.


Keith, you provide no evidence for this.  The low current oil prices show
that oil & gas prices are either market (demand) or speculation (futures)
driven.

The reason things "came apart" is that Wall St. and hedge fund managers bet
the future on derivatives that nobody understood, esp. with respect to the
risks of valuation when demand evaporates.  There was some of that in the
oil market, but the oil market unwound gracefully.  The same claim cannot be
made with respect to the real estate market.


> I know how to fix that, but it's a hard sell.


It is a particularly hard sell against other (cheaper) solutions.  I worked
out the numbers circa 2001.  You do not need SPS.  You need solar ponds,
potentially salt water solar ponds, growing cyanobacteria or algae producing
biodiesel or equivalent feedstocks.  Produces many more jobs here on Earth
and is sustainable.  The agricultural land available in the SW US could
support the entire U.S. energy requirements without the need to launch SPS.

And obviously, such technology once developed could be exported to the
Middle East where they have ample supplies of sea water and ample solar
energy without the need for launching god knows how many rockets.  You have
to ask yourself (when you've got a great high-tech solution) Is there a
low-tech solution?

Robert
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20090201/07c1e117/attachment.html>