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Originally Posted by CB..
i know this is drifting of topic but it completely msytifies me...
we know we are running out of Oil...we know Oil is absolutely essentail to our society in ways we can't even be bothered to think about...we know Oil is both fundamental to the heart of the economy and at the heart of world politics..not to mention the military situation...
yet there is no mention of finding an alternative..other than the vague notion that some one some where will "think of something"...
Oil IS our civilisation....without it we can't even scratch our own noses..
unless some sort of substitue can be quickly found ..one that will slot into the space left by oil with little or no alteration of current technology,
or the entire technological tree will simply vanish...requiring a vast and un endingly radical change to our way of life
i know it is cool to dismiss the frailtys of our current situation...
but i for one would feel a whole lot better if there were some attempt being made to re-assure the public on this subject...
the fact that little or no re-assurance is being proffered by our governments...is deeply deeply perverse
lets face it if they had the soloution then they would have told us..(if it was at all pleasant)
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Yes it's off topic and perhaps a new thread is waranted. Until then I have a bit of food for thought.
"Despite the continued growth in global consumption of petroleum, proven oil reserves have increased steadily over the past twenty years, in large part because oil companies have revised their estimates of reserves in known fields. According to the
Oil & Gas Journal’s production estimates, during the period of 1970 to 2000, 680 Gb of oil was produced, but 980 Gb of reserves were added. Under old technologies, oil companies could only retrieve about 35 percent of the oil in place; with enhanced technologies, including directional drilling, companies have increased that amount and with new technologies, it is believed that it is possible to extract up to 65 percent of the oil in the field. Moreover, three and four dimensional seismic exploration technology has led to revised estimates of oil that can be economically extracted. Reserves are defined by economic as well as geological considerations; one reason that reserves increase is that companies do not invest funding in exploration and enhanced recovery until there is a demand and the prices of oil warrants the expenditure."