[IP] more on The Long Emergency
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Robert J. Berger" <rberger@xxxxxxx>
Date: July 16, 2005 5:31:14 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>, Dewayne Hendricks
<dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Udhay Shankar N <udhay@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [IP] The Long Emergency
The article is interesting and does bring up many good points. I
agree that its pretty darn sure that we are going to hit lots of
problems due to increasing costs of Oil and Natural Gas.
But I don't think its quite as bleak as he says (unless the Un-
reality based Neocons stay in power).
For instance, Trains could make a major comeback to handle the
transportation load at dramatically lower energy costs than todays
air and truck transport. We aren't going to run out of energy
overnight and rebuilding a train network wouldn't be all that hard if
we don't wait too long.
Then there could also be other technologies that can do major
transportation of goods at much lower costs such as airships. These
could be built at very low cost (comparatively) and could take
advantage of hydrogen production as a lift gas. (I know every one
will instantly think of the Hindenburg, but the German Zeppelins were
not designed for using hydrogen. There are ways of doing this pretty
safely).
A lot of what needs to happen to make our lives more energy efficient
will happen through market forces as the price of gas goes up. This
could even include the eventual devolution of Suburbia.
The worse thing we could do is to artificially hold back the price of
oil. The most that should happen is to try to smooth out spikes, but
let it be known far and wide that Oil and its related products will
just keep getting more expensive.
We need to make is so that ex-Oil executives (particularly
incompetent and previously unsuccessful oil executives) are not
running the country.
Rob
On Jul 16, 2005, at 5:00 AM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:
Begin forwarded message:
From: Udhay Shankar N <udhay@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: July 16, 2005 4:51:56 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: The Long Emergency
Dave,
A long and thought-provoking article in the Rolling Stone on the
"long emergency" - based on the thesis that world oil production
has peaked, and what the consequences will be.
Sure to generate lots of debate. ;-)
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/7203633
Udhay
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