Microwave Oops

[prog]

Was talking with a friend about Peak Oil the other day. I hadn't pinned down the phrase until then, and now I'm fascinated with the topic. It's the first phrase I've subscribed to via Google News Alerts.

She was invoking SF scenarios where human civilization literally runs out of gas and can't do anything anymore. I don't see that... before the gas goes away, it will become really expensive, and stay that way. I foresee self-correcting behavior among consumers who are forced to finally start adopting some conservation into their lifestyles. For the last 30 years they have avoided or dismissed the the conservation message, since they had nothing drop-dead obvious to gain from it. Now, suddenly, they will. It costs HOW much to fill up my SUV?! And keep the lights on all day, and leave the heat cranked to 80, and...

But all the while a finite resource is still being burned up, so something will have to replace it on a global scale. Mark Frauenfelder and others posted a nice summary & info roundup on Boing Boing about Peak Oil and possible cheap-energy alternatives, including some interesting stuff about modern (post- Three Mile / Homer Simpson) nuclear power technologies.

Comments

[pseudomanitou.livejournal.com]

I doubt nuclear energy will equal 'cheap energy'. As it stands now, since it's introduction - nuclear energy has not gotten any cheaper - nor does it look like they can ever make it that way what with waste disposal being a huge problem that has been handled in the most pathetic ways in order to make it seem more palatable (IE - Yucca Mountain).

Oil is not necessary for most products - almost all of my household items are free of petroleum products. Various glass mixtures can provide where/when plastics drop off, and other such plastics can be made with corn oils and so on.

I'm extremely aggravated by people who insist wind power will not provide. I'm looking right out my office window at a massive wind turbine that supports 40% of the local college's energy. It's effective, requires low maintenance, was built in a flash, needs no crew to monitor it constantly, and terrorists won't be slamming planes into it anytime soon if ever. At best, people can argue that a major city would need a massive amount of space to set up the wind turbines it needs to power it - but I can see two golfing ranges from my office window as well.

People just need to adjust their priorities :P