Stinger said:
EVery energy source has it's good and bad, every one has some energy loss.
This is true, but that's different from being a net energy loser. A net energy loser takes more energy to process than what you get out of it. This isn't to say that it doesn't sometimes make sense to use a net energy loser as energies come in different forms. I would imagine that, assuming it were possible, we would still extract oil even if it were a net energy loser because of its versatility. But the economic conditions necessary for such a thing to work would be very different than what we have now.
Anyway, I'm not against nuclear per se, but I fear that if we get too happy with it, we will increase our chances of a really terrible catastrophe happening. We cannot build reactors on a crash program; we've got to take care. But the human enterprise has always involved some risk, so if we want to advance we will have to go that route. Nor am I against most of the other alternatives that have been proposed. I think we ought to stay away from ethanol, though, as our agricultural systems will be terribly strained.
Stinger said:
What is YOUR solution? If not nuclear, if not hydrogen and synthetics that can be produced using those and our coal resourses what are your solutions?
I think you, and most people who come to even be aware that there is such a thing as a peak in oil production, misunderstand. I remember reading a transcript of when Kenneth Deffeyes and Colin Campbell went to speak to some members of congress (this was about 2 years ago). They talked about the geology and some of the economics involved, and finally one of the congresspeople present, who obviously had no idea what was happening, got angry and demanded to start hearing solutions, not problems. I can imagine the look on Deffeyes' not so pretty face, but he basically said "You don't get it. There is no solution. We're headed for a crash."
And that is what I say to you. There is no solution that will in any way preserve the way of life we know now. There is no solution that will prevent some 4 billion people (at least), many of them on this continent, from dying what we would think of as an untimely death by mid-century. Our agricultural systems will not support them without inputs of oil and natural gas.
Some numbers to show the magnitude of the problem:
The planet consumes about 85 million barrels
per day of oil.
Each barrel of oil contains the same amount of energy as is used by 12 men working for a year. This seems fantastic, but if you figure that there are 18 gallons of gasoline extracted from a barrel of oil (along with other products), and the average SUV gets maybe 20 miles to the gallon, a barrel of oil will push that SUV 360 miles. How long would it take 12 men to push that same SUV 360 miles? Could you and 11 others make a mile a day hauling 1500 pounds of iron behind you? I bet not much more than a mile. So that means that oil provides the equivalent of 372 billion people working for free per year, considering only the gasoline we get out of it. The real number, considering Kerosine, heating oil, and other products is probably closer to half a trillion.
The average energy consumption per home in the United States is about the equivalent of having 33,000 slaves working for you. I can get as much work out of an electric motor for 25 cents worth of electricity than I could out of a man working all day. There just isn't any way we can keep that up--not even a fraction of it. Past a certain point, as oil supplies contract, our way of life will simply vanish. Gone will be corner offices, x-boxes, cadillac escalades, and IT supervisors. There just won't be a way to sustain the system; and if to much of it fails, the whole thing will fail.
As for solutions--most people will simply choose to ignore the problem and not look at what's happening. There's nothing that we as a society can do. There are things that some individuals can do for themselves and their families. Learn to grow as much food as possible, be prepared to defend it, and be as self sufficient as you can. Form networks with other people of like mind. Get used to the fact that life is about to become a lot more uncomfortable. There are no solutions beyond that.