Gasoline/diesel prices hit record highs

I personally think we're already passed royally fucked. It really doesn't matter if the entirety of the western world suddenly switched to greener fuels. It wont stop China, India, and other modernizing nations from using fossil fuels. America alone consumes 3/4ths of the Earth's resources. When the majority of China lives like the US the entire world will be in some serious shit.

This doesn't even have to do with the whole climate change thing either. There simply isn't enough on this planet to support so many people living like this. A lot of our metals only have 40-50 years left at our current consumption. If nations like China or India advance you can cut that in half or more.

This isn't just a problem with oil running out, but a problem with how humans in general are living. We're wasting way too much and being way too fucking lazy about fixing it. All of our technology is incredibly wasteful and no one is doing anything about making it more efficient. I'm sorry, but seeing a new gasoline car get 30-40 mpg only now in 07/08 isn't impressive when we have had diesel vehicles getting much better than that for a long time. You cant even buy those diesel vehicles here in the states either!

We cannot just simply change our fuels.

Ethanol is pointless, especially ethanol gained from corn. It raises the price on feed for livestock and humans. Since it's more profitable to sell corn for fuel, meat prices will go up as farmers sell less feed and raise less livestock. Everything that uses corn based products will rise in price since there's less corn for human consumption.

Switch grass would be a better source for ethanol, since it grows fucking everywhere and you don't lose as much energy as you would when using corn. But this wouldn't change the fact you still need twice as much ethanol to run an engine, so the distance you get on a gallon is even worst.

Electric wont work either, at least not until we have fusion reactors working. I dont see that happening anytime soon. That's the only possible way electric cars could be clean and cost effective. Otherwise it still pollutes a shit ton, since you have those nasty batteries and all the fossil fuels being used up to generate the electricity charging your car. Which brings up my next point about electric cars. You are still using up oil and other fossil fuels in all those electric plants. Nuclear fission isn't the answer either since the public is resistant and there's a limited amount of fuel for that too!

Solar powered cars wont work. The panels are just not efficient enough, and you get the same problems with electric cars.

Hydrogen powered cars wont work either. You need to build up all the infrastructure for it, like all those hydrogen gas stations. It is also very costly to get that hydrogen. There isn't a cheap and easy way to make the stuff.

Simply put, there isn't some magic fuel we can switch to. We need to change our habits and the way we live to fix our problem, or at least delay it until we can figure out a solution. However, humanity tends to not want to do anything until we're forced. So I dont see us changing, I see us consuming more and more until it's too late.

I guess I'll have to get use to paying higher and higher prices for my food, services, fuel, and products..

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I just remembered another problem humanity is facing. If we cannot change how we live then we will need to find more resources. If the earth is out then we must look elsewhere, like the rest of our solar system.

But we cannot do that if we do not have the technology for it. We wont even be on the moon untill, what.. 2015? 2020? Space is such a nice, big source of resources. It's just waiting to be used up and no one seems to be looking into it.

A potential solution is up there and we are again dragging our feet. People ask what the point of space exploration is? How about the materials needed to let you live the way you do day in and out?

It saddens me too, because the way I see it.. by the time we have the knowledge and technology to get up there and mine the resources we need there wont be any materials left on earth to build the equipment to get up there.

I could also be exaggerating the problem and overly critical, but oh well. I know going up into space and mining some asteroid is easier said than done, but why does there seem to be no push for it? Why no research into it at all? Maybe I'm mistaken, but I cant seem to find any group thats trying..

There's nowhere I can't reach.

When is the last time a nuclear power plant went online in the US anyway? Not for a while, right? Most of our plants are pretty old. Nuclear reactor designs have come a long way. They are much safer and cleaner. Now if we could only build them. Oh, what about the waste? We can't forget that. I dont think we have any way to fully re-use or get rid of the waste at the moment. Storing it in the ground will only work for so long.

I just don't see it as a solution in the US because of the public. No one wants it in their back yard. They will never get built, at least not in the amount we need to get off fossil fuels.

If we could shift to nuclear fission, and use that until fusion got off the ground I could see electric cars replacing gasoline vehicles and pretty much everything that uses fuel to move. This wont solve your problem with plastics and other materials that need petroleum, but it would help. Like I said before though, I really don't think that will ever happen.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Zephyrin

You sounded completely opposed to the nuclear idea in your first post...

Why can't we just store nuclear waste in Antarctica? Does it require that much upkeep?

Sorry, I guess I came off the wrong way then. It is not that I am opposed to nuclear energy, it is that I simply do not see us shifting to an energy system that mainly uses nuclear power. I just don't think the general population will be accepting it for a long time.

I am very doubtful of any new energy or fuel sources we have currently. I would love it if we would use them, but the majority of our options just wont work with how things are right now..

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?