When asked what his or her thoughts were about the rising fuel cost here was their input.
May 26, 1:50 - challenge accepted.
* Speculation on oil futures continues unchecked, pushing the price past $200/barrel.
* World markets switch to pricing oil in Euros, further destabilising the dollar.
* Despite increased control of both houses of Congress, lawmakers are unable to act.
* US economy in depression.
* A cascade of goverment bankruptcies begin as municipal, county and state authorities realise that funding streams have evaporated.
* Troops are pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
* Iraq and Afghanistan goverments fall.
* Lebanon is taken over by Hizballah.
* Israel, now realizing that Washington has abandoned them, strikes Iran.
* Syria and Iran both respond with counter-strikes using WMD.
* Russia and China align with Syria/Iraq threatening the US if it intervenes on behalf of Israel.
* Defcon 1.
===
I don't see any alternative energy solutions for 3 reasons.
1. Some alternative "sources", like hydrogen or electrical, are not true new sources of energy, just just convenient modes of energy transport.
2. All new sources of energy that are capable of significant impact on the US economy have been taken off the table by politics.
3. The timeline I described is less than a decade at best and months at worst. Nothing can be done to repair the system in time.
May 26, 1:50 - challenge accepted.
* Speculation on oil futures continues unchecked, pushing the price past $200/barrel.
* World markets switch to pricing oil in Euros, further destabilising the dollar.
* Despite increased control of both houses of Congress, lawmakers are unable to act.
* US economy in depression.
* A cascade of goverment bankruptcies begin as municipal, county and state authorities realise that funding streams have evaporated.
* Troops are pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
* Iraq and Afghanistan goverments fall.
* Lebanon is taken over by Hizballah.
* Israel, now realizing that Washington has abandoned them, strikes Iran.
* Syria and Iran both respond with counter-strikes using WMD.
* Russia and China align with Syria/Iraq threatening the US if it intervenes on behalf of Israel.
* Defcon 1.
===
I don't see any alternative energy solutions for 3 reasons.
1. Some alternative "sources", like hydrogen or electrical, are not true new sources of energy, just just convenient modes of energy transport.
2. All new sources of energy that are capable of significant impact on the US economy have been taken off the table by politics.
3. The timeline I described is less than a decade at best and months at worst. Nothing can be done to repair the system in time.
Comments
And we don't need the oil in Artic Wildlife Refuge - better for national security to keep our oil in the ground until it REALLY becomes scarce. You might say oil in undeveloped fields is our nation's ultimate strategic reserve. And I like the caribou, too!
One of the great things about LLNL is that we do have the opportunity to work on projects that can REALLY improve our nation's future - such as alternative fuels - especially if the restructuring succeeds and overheads come down. I'm working hard right now with several others to build a biofuels program.
Here are some of the things the nascent biofuels program is starting with: LLNL is helping design a biofuels research center in Southeast Asia and has a number of projects supporting the deconstruction of lignocellulose - which is the only hope for corn ethanol to meaningfully reduce the US demand for oil - and even that is debatable as some of you will almost certainly point out.
What makes energy difficult? Politics. What makes layoffs opaque? Politics. What makes large, capital intensive projects that change the world possible? Politics.
My thought for the day. Engage in, and even enjoy, local politics (NOT the same as living with, or the ultimate death sentence for any organization, accepting, the status quo) and prosper or consider moving to a new locale with politics more to your liking.
Here's the bottom line. We can do research in tandem but we need to utilize our natural resources as a means of producing power that we know works and we can build quickly without doing any more drilling that'll harm to the environment. Hydrogen is the answer no matter what those against it say.
Has anyone considered this gas price increase is nothing more than a ploy to get the people to insist on more drilling in Alaska, to allow the building of nuclear power plants or almost anything the big oil companies want with a promise they'll get you cheap gas for your cars while in the meantime they continue to get richer and destroy what's left of this planet. They don't give a hoot about wildlife , the forest, the air, the water or even the people lives they destroy when they come in to drill. It seems that mankind is well on his way to self destruction all for the almighty dollar.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/09/18/driving.iceland/index.html
Read the book Down to a Sunless Sea by David Graham.
That some people care more about caribou than the economy is fine by me. But when a couple SS-25s hit Prudoe Bay those caribou are going to roast along with everything else in the area.
I feel sorry for the next generation and the BS they're going to have to put up with. If I could do all over again I would have never had any children. I almost feel sorry I brought them into this world and the FU mess it is now and will continue to be. We have gutless swines in charge of a bunch of cowardly people. What a combination of annelids. I guess they are deserving of one another.