coliphorbs said:
2012? We have enough reserves to drain for long after that year.
Actually: no, we don't. There are still reserves, true, but it's harder and harder to get to them. Harder means that we have to waste more energy getting to them. That means less profit, which in turn means they become more expensive. And ultimately, at a certain point we will need, let's say, one barrel of oil to extract one barrel of oil.
What you usually hear when you point this out, is this: yeah, but by then we will have discovered or invented another way to get to the reserves. And: we will have alternative energy sources by then and we will be saved.
What this 'other way of getting to the reserves' would be, nobody knows. But that it would cost fossil fuels as well is a given. Nuclear energy? Sure, why not. But do remember that you can't build a nuclear installation without fossil fuels and that for digging up uranium and so on, one needs... fossil fuels.
"No way, man, we won't need fossil fuels for that. We'll use wind and solar and whatever energy!"
Sure, why not. But for building those wind mills and solar panels, we need fossil fuels. For putting them up, we need fossil fuels. For getting people to the spot where they need to be erected, we need fossil fuels. And so on.
Alternative energy is the biggest hoax of the 21st century. The only reasons they are being introduced are:
[1] Someone is getting rich
[2] It soothes the minds of the common people
Alternative energy = the song you hum when lightning strikes and your kid is scared to death. The song won't make the lightning stop, it will only comfort the kid.
Last time I saw my sister, she said: "I'm sure those bastards already know how to make cars run on water, they're just waiting until all the oil is gone."
I kept my mouth shut, but here you have it: if a company knows how to make cars run on water and they intentionally keep quiet about it, they are the stupidest company in the history of mankind. They could make billions. In a day.
Reason why it ain't happening: we can't make cars run on water. If we did, they would be called rowing boats. And those already exist.
We are fucked. It's that simple. There is no exotic energy source left out there, waiting for us to discover it. If such an exotic energy source did exist, we'd already know. We would have already known about it years ago. If a scientific magazine tells you otherwise, you can be sure it's messing with your head and trying to make you believe the same crap people in the fifties had to read about: nuclear cars, flying cars, ... Stuff that belongs in Hollywood studios only.
The big leaders of the world know this, I'm sure. The people who pull the strings are completely aware of this. But what do you expect them to do? Tell us? 'Cause panic in the streets of London, Dublin, Paris, New York, Beijing, and so on? Create mass hysteria by telling people how things are going to work out for them?
You can't blame them for trying the good ol' way of soothing the masses by telling them lies. It's not a conspiracy, it's common sense.
Also: it's not what people want to hear. People want to hear that they'll always be able to buy that big friggin' plasma screen and their Gucci clothes. People want to hear they'll still be able to go Christmas shopping in New York and return the same day to their awesome luxury apartment in Amsterdam. People will pay a little extra for gasoline every new month of every new year, but please do not tell them that four years from now, they will have to choose between driving a car and feeding their children.
The really sad fact is that this impending tragedy could be so so easily avoided if people would just learn to make a difference between what they need and what they want. But people are stupid. And that's a fact. And no politician in the whole wide world will ever have the guts to force them to be content with what they need and forbid them to strive for what they want. 'Cause that politician would stop being a politician immediately. Democracy is a beautiful thing after all.
Meh. I stopped caring, really. After reading tons and tons of books on the subject, after thinking for months and months on the subject, I have come to the conclusion that the end of society as we know it, of our industrial civilization and of atrocities like capitalism and democracy, is the best thing that could ever happen.
I want it to happen. I want it to happen as soon as possible. And looking at my neighbours, the man in the street, the traffic jam at the train station, the airplane flying over my head, it is what everyone wants to happen. They just don't know they do.
