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Originally Posted by Catfish
Good post, not only what i quoted here 
In using fossil fuels ('mineral' oil), we are depleting a kind of solar battery, that has been accumulated in more than 200 million years – and we pump the stowed-away CO back into the atmosphere while burning coal, and oil. |
Indeed, unfortunately it's a single charge battery so once it's gone, it's gone. I dare say that there may be new oil and gas pockets created in the future from the forests we have now, but given how few in number they are, the pockets will be small and few and far between and it'll be millennia before they form. So what we need is a move away from the single use battery towards a form of energy which whilst is not infinite will last a lot longer than our fossil reserves, namely the sun.
Obviously getting the energy from the sun is a trickier proposition than it seems, for one actually making the equipment isn't the most environmentally friendly procedure as I'm sure Betonov will attest to, but once it is made then it repays its footprint eventually and likewise over time makes up the cost of construction (I think solar or wind was 8-15 years the last time I checked, that might have changed) and furthermore our atmosphere robs us of a lot of the suns energy. There was a proposal put forward a decade or two ago about putting a solar array in orbit and then using microwaves to transmit the energy to Earth, but getting such a device into orbit, keeping it there and keeping it working has been deemed not cost effective so far.
Not so long ago I posted a map on which was the size of solar panels needed to provide the entire planet with electricity for now and conceivably into the next fifty years at least. In comparison to the surface of the Earth it's a tiny amount, in fact if we were to convert the non-habited areas of the Sahara desert into solar panels it would be more than enough.
From that you could whittle down the usage of fossil fuels from transportation into purely plastic creation and using recycling measures you could get the usage down to a trickle, thus ensuring a steady supply for a lot longer than currently envisaged, and with no need for risky fracking or even nuclear power outside of perhaps ships and submarines.
Unfortunately we, as a species, lack the cohesion needed to undertake the tasks required within the time limit available, and of course you have the big companies who would stand to lose a lot of money under such a system and they would fight any proposal the whole way, damning a whole species for a handful of corporate interests. I may not be as vocal as Skybird, but I'm no big fan of the likes of OPEC and big monopolising companies, however there seems to be no easy way of dismantling them without causing massive damage to the economy and hurting the people that rely on it...ie, the likes of you and I. But it will likely have to be done at some point in the future when governments and big business have their showdown, and right now I couldn't tell you who would win.
Still, getting back on to topic.
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OT:
As if you knew it, my car is being fuelled with rape seed oil, or 'canola' as it is called. The car is an average VW from '84 (quantum station wagon, in the US?), but it has a 'special' engine. Not that you cannot run any Diesel engine with canola oil (provided you change some minor things here and there) but this car is one of a hundred with "Elsbett" motor. This engine was in bad condition when i bought it, and it took almost a year to get the spare parts and repair it, but since then it runs very well. You have to change the motor oil regularly though every 6000 miles, because plant oils react with motor oil, when being in contact for a long time, which may then damage bearings and the Turbo. Using the same oil for 1/2 a year or 10000 km don't create any problems though.
Unfortunately nowadays i run it mostly on Diesel, because most of the oil 'gas' stations have closed, when our government decided to add an energy tax, on vegetable oils. And, you guessed it, the mineral oil industry does not really like it.
It is a chore to buy 60 one litre bottles bottles and pour this into the tank, so ... but apart from the energy needed to produce the canola, it is virtually CO2-free.
Greetings,
Catfish
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Nice, it's good to see that cars can be retrofitted. I don't drive, which is rather a disadvantage in the area I live, but the costs are inhibitive at the current time. Hopefully by the time I get behind the wheel the electric car will have settled into place, but again that requires people to take it up...and as you've pointed out with the canola fueled cars, the mineral oil industry has found a way to sabotage its progress.
However, when I see the likes of Tesla cars on Top Gear, and the progress that has been made from things like Milk Floats and the Sinclair C5, and the progress made in charging technology in the space of what...two decades? If that rate of advance is kept, then who can say where exactly we will be in another two decades? I'm sure that the businesses will find a way into the new market, they are already trying, after all someone has to provide the equipment and electricity to charge the cars and you can guarantee that it won't be as simple as plugging it into the mains at home.
We might not be heading for a utopia (despite the fact that if we collectively got our heads out of our arses we could make one...but that's human nature for you) but we are heading into a very very interesting period of technological development, and I find it quite exciting to see what will come next.