I don't know whether it's out the mainstream or not,
but peak oil is pretty much a fact, albeit one people don't want to know about. Basically, we've ...probably... got another 50 years or so, before we're back to the Stone Age.
(Pookie Bear had some very shiny foez, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 15:45, 20 replies)

I'd worry more about the helium running out before oil

( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 15:48, closed)

yeah it would be terrible
if we couldn't give floating balloons to the children.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 16:12, closed)

Y'know helium has several very important uses in society, where would we be without the goodyear blimp for example?
(Roger McGough-Pipe, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 16:30, closed)

Almost exactly the first line of this article
"The world is running low on helium? Big freaking deal, right? Worst-case scenario, future kids won't ever experience the joy of shelling out $7 for an amusement park balloon, then immediately tripping and seeing it fly away."

www.cracked.com/article_19048_6-important-things-you-didnt-know-were-running-out-of.html
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 16:32, closed)

I remember when people were saying exactly this in the 1980s.
Thirty years ago.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 15:49, closed)

The problem is, it can't be dated till it's already happened for a while.

(Pookie Bear had some very shiny foez, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 15:50, closed)

Basically bollocks.
Yes, oil is running out - yes - this is an issue.
But.
If oil hits $300/bbl - lots more oil becomes 'affordably' extractable.

And when electric bills hit three times their current amount - suddenly the politicians blocking new nuclear decide that actually - it's not such a bad idea at all.
Might we have severe issues for 10-15 years while new nuclear is getting built - yes.
But there is no real technological reason we can't basically increase nuclear 30-fold over our current amount, and replace all gas and oil for heating, and go over to electric vehicles.
Will it be expensive - sure.
But once you take transportation, heating, and electricity generation out of the equation - we can live with _lots_ higher prices for oil.
(speedevil, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 16:53, closed)

Hopefully they'll get nuclear fusion sorted out soon enough,
South Korea hope to have a working commercial reactor by the 2030s, and the Japanese are investing in it since Fukushima.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 16:56, closed)

We've already got a working nuclear fusion reactor: the sun.
I'll be seriously impressed if they can get it working on any scale smaller than a star.
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 21:23, closed)

they already have done,
the problem is getting it to output more power than is put in. They've managed it in short bursts.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 21:58, closed)

What speedevil said.
We in the UK can look forward to rolling blackouts and brownouts in the next 5 to 10 years though. That'll be fun.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 17:13, closed)

also you've got to take into account
the energy cost of oil. If it takes more energy to extract the oil than you'd produce by burning it, it won't be worth extracting anymore no matter how high its price goes. (At least not for energy production anyway, you might still want it to make plastics.)

This is interesting:
www.theworld.org/2012/11/the-energy-costs-of-oil-production/
For oil from tar sands, the energy payoff is already down to 5 to 1.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 17:36, closed)

Personally I think we need nuclear for power.
Then we an use the oil for rubber and the like.
The problem is the UK needed nuclear about 10 years ago, now we're reliant upon shipments of gas to feed an infrastructure that won't be able to cover our energy needs in the next decade.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 17:42, closed)

we certainly need something new,
but nuclear fission is still kind of dodgy, for various reasons that we don't want certain other countries doing it. But Iran must want to do it for a reason, even though they're a major oil producing country.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 17:48, closed)

Iran knows that we're itching to invade and fuck them,
to get their oil stocks.
(Pookie Bear had some very shiny foez, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 19:38, closed)

Nuclear is basically the way forward.
Solar, wind, wave geo etc, yes all very well, but if we don't want to be living like our fucking ancestors, get the safe nukes fired up. Or ask Mr Tesla.
(Pookie Bear had some very shiny foez, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 19:26, closed)

sadly
if all our power needs were served by nuclear, as in fission like we have now, all the Uranium fuel in the world wouldn't last us very much longer, either.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 21:50, closed)

Well
The likes of Portugal is doing really well with renewables but they aren't doing well with the pennies.

Fossil fuels have been running out for a long time but the alberta tar sands were all but ignored for a while until it became worthwhile to set up a sprawling technological and logistical nightmare to exploit it.

Fracking looks very interesting at the moment. All aquifer pollution, flaming taps and earthquakes aside.

Finally, the answer. The only reason current nuclear power production has followed it's current path is because its byproducts were needed to make the odd nuclear bomb.

These bad boys will sort us out: www.extremetech.com/extreme/150551-the-500mw-molten-salt-nuclear-reactor-safe-half-the-price-of-light-water-and-shipped-to-order

That's unless we don't run out of rare earth elements first. In which case it's goodbye iPhone, hello flint knife :-)
(OTT, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 20:44, closed)

The vast majority of us will go back to the Stone Age.
But I'd gladly bet actual money there will still be a tiny, well-bred elite that will hold out, live like kings and occasionally hire one of the mere mortals to polish their shoes or make their dinner.
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 21:34, closed)

I will never go hungry for I shall eat the undeserving poor.

( Infidel , shit and wrong, Thu 25 Apr 2013, 21:47, closed)