[extropy-chat] OIL: Albertan tar sands, was Peak Oil?

[Lifespan Pharma Inc.]

Like a solar power satellite focusing  its gathered energy at the site which
heats the tarsands materials and extracts the hydrocarbon materials.

>> 
>>
>>Ah.  True - but it strikes me that solar heaters
>>would be ideal for
>>this sort of thing.  Easy to port from field to
>>field (moreso than
>>nuclear or even fossil fueled, with no reactor or
>>combustion chamber),
>>no waste products (after the solar panels have been
>>manufactured), et
>>cetera and so forth.
>>    
>>
>
>I like the idea of solar powered heaters better for
>getting oil out shale, but every advance that aids in
>the burning of yet more hydrocarbons is an advance to
>the rear. That is, to say, a step backward. We know
>the health and environmental impact of burning
>hyrocarbons, yet we do it any way. And the oil
>companies are probably not going to rest until, we
>have burned every last drop of oil on the planet. All
>the carbon that has gone to ground over a billion
>years released back into the atmosphere in less than a
>millenium. And with all the deforestation it will be a
>long time before all that carbon gets scrubbed back
>out of our atmosphere. And if there are abiotic oil
>sources, we will end up with more carbon in the
>atmosphere than was ever there before. All in all a
>losing proposition as hydrocarbons will never get us
>to the stars.
>  
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20050914/7fc12989/attachment.html>