Ethanol is NOT the answer until we efficiently perform cellulosic conversion. It takes 22Kg of corn to make enough e85 to fill a standard SUV tank....coincedently, 22KG is enough corn to feed a person for a year. Even if we were able to plant every available acre with corn, we could still not meet out energy needs.

 

The only real solution is if the world were populated by maybe 4 billion less people. Whether it is oil, fish, land, lumber, water, or any other basic resource, there are too many people demanding too much of limited resources.

 

[QUOTE=Bandiscoot,Nov 6 2007, 11:20 PM] ^good reading Jim

i look at it this way ... the US will suffer the greatest from the lack of a reasonably priced fuel for transportation.

 

xupthree: i didn't think there was tax on milk?

speaking of tax ... can anyone quote the ACTUAL cost of a gallon of gas prior to all the taxes/tariffs? I remember hearing on talk radio that it was nearly half of the retail price.

WG: ... the roads are the major issue? You just want a 'Chicago Box' on every street around your house!


Here's why this isn't as much of an issue for me ... the human race has survived and prospered for hundreds of years WITHOUT the dependency on petroleum. I can grow/find my own food if need be. That's the redneck talking ... sorry. And just like any species ... the ability to feed ourselves immediately dictates our population.

 

I think that qualifies as circular reasoning, if not a vicious cycle.

A localized grain surplus isn't significant of anything on the global scale, nor do grains meet all human dietary requirements.
At our present population level, the world obtains approximately two percent of its food supply from the ocean. Even at this seemingly low demand, the ocean is being dangerously over-fished and fisheries in some areas of the world are at great risk of collapsing altogether.
In addition to the effects of human population growth on food supplies, there are many additional problems created, either directly or indirectly, by population growth. One of particular concern to me is its effects on biodiversity. For example, approximately seventy percent of the world's coral reefs are in serious danger and declining at an alarming rate. Some estimate that all coral reefs will be gone in as little as thirty years at the present rate of decline. A problem created, in large part, by the increase in human population size. And a problem that will have very serious and far reaching consequences for humans. I'll refrain from getting started on the effects of HPG on marine phytoplankton populations and the fact that phytoplankton supply approximately eighty percent of the oxygen we breath, or the myriad of other problems resulting from the increase in human population density. I wouldn't want to put you all in a coma.

 

I'm going to reserve my thoughts on this subject until I have time to really sit down and put them to paper. I have a small business plan that I'm starting the groundwork on that hopefully will make some small dent in the carbon emissions produced by our utility departments. I can tell you this, being married to Orange County's environmental engineer charged with cataloging and dealing with the county's carbon footprint, we are in big, big trouble.

This planet is simply way too over crowded, and our time here is very limited. The world as we know it will not exist by the end of our lifetimes. What will replace it is still unknown at this time, but what we have now simply cannot survive with today's demand on natural resources.

 

[QUOTE=Willie Gee,Nov 7 2007, 04:30 AM] Our entire city structure was built around the automobile.

 

^good stuff Triman