You Fracking Me! Methane Hydrate, The Next Fracking Revolution.

[evildevil]

New technology and a little-known energy source suggest that fossil fuels may not be finite. This would be a miracle-and a nightmare

Comments

[underlankers]

I don't dispute at all that our present reliance on fossil fuels can only end badly. Yet whenever I see environmentalists advocate that we do away with them altogether, I keep wondering what they expect to replace oil and coal as supplies on planes and ships. Sailing ships can't carry enough food to keep the megalopolises of the present supplied, and I'd hope that they're smart enough to realize that instead of simply advocating a blanket slogan with an idea that sounds good until it has to actually be implemented. It's not enough to penalize use of coal or oil, there has to be a viable alternative energy source as flexible as petroleum and coal. Is there any such source that can solve issues of how to say, transport things like food and other basic necessities between the big cities of the 21st Century?

[the_physicist]

Well, rail roads are good for transporting goods and should be invested in more, but yeah, agreed on shipping and planes. Which is why in my opinion its a very good idea to save the oil for uses such as those, cause you can't easily do away with such fuel there yet. If we run out of it before there's a solution, what happens to global trade? :-/

[underlankers]

Good question, but one without a good answer. This is just my personal POV, but I think some of the truly ultra-environmentalist granola types just want the oil gone and don't think for a second about what to replace it with. Solar, Geothermal, Wind, all that works on a local scale. The idea of how those people would keep up global trade and avoid the problems of the first gigantic famines in a modern society since the 1930s produced by deliberate modernization, however, doesn't occur to them. In a way it's just like the oil companies that focus on the immediate future and deliberately try to squelch any competition, long-term reality be damned, though the latter have a shitload of money and loyal followers in two political parties and the former don't. Which is also IMHO one reason why even the Kyoto Protocol's signatories like Canada didn't bother adhering to it and blamed the non-signatories for not wanting to sign a worthless scrap of paper

[the_physicist]

I think the solution to plane fuel etc will have to lie with hydrogen fuel cell like technologies. Collect the energy from renewables, store it, use it on the go. However, I think hydrogen on planes sounds a little dangerous. ;) we'll see. And there isn't one renewable that can replace everything right now. Solar cells will probably play a large role as new types are invented and perfected. But each "slice" of the solution will have to be worked on. There likely isn't going to be one simple solution. Also, energy saving technologies too, things like that. Better windows. Lots of little and big inventions will have to be applied together.

[the_physicist]

"What does it mean when oil companies say they have so many million barrels in reserves? How much energy is in the ground? When will we begin running out? "

Estimates of reserves are made based on how much oil could be extracted at enough of a profit for it to be worth it with current tech. So as oil became more expensive, tech better and so on, even hard to get at oil reserves suddenly seem profitable, when before they didn't show up in the estimates.

On the whole yeah, I think any new energy source is good really, tbh. But also, well highlighted by the article - the problems with getting politicians to continue investing in renewables.

[peace_piper]

Alright, hands up, who thought this was a Battlestar Galactica thing at first, and was confused? Cause I did.

[tsu_]

this is a really thoughtful article