Taking GW out of the issue completely and looking at sustainability the oil will run out at some time. What are we going to do?
Transport - Are we going to have nuclear power producing electricity for trucks?
Food production - A big tractor is 500 horse power approx. What would we run combine harvesters, tractors, balers ect on?
Defence - airplanes, tanks, moving troops around?
Rail/Canal etc.
2007-10-16 02:28:04 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Environment ➔ Other - Environment
If carbon emissions were not of concern use could be made of vast reserves of coal, tar sands and oil shales. The Fischer Tropsch process can be used to produce oil from coal. These deposits together would last for many hundreds of years.
Even without fossil fuels hydrogen or synthetic hydrocarbons could be produced using nuclear power as an energy source. There are also biofuels such as ethanol, butanol and oils.
2007-10-16 16:21:42 · answer #1 · answered by Robert A 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Arguably, there are only two sources of energy available on earth: nuclear and solar (which is really just imported nuclear energy). Oil is one form of stored solar energy. If oil runs out, we would use some other terrestrial nuclear or solar energy source. Of course, energy derived from such a source could be temporarily stored in another form for anywhere from a few minutes to millions of years before it is transformed for useful work.
2007-10-16 02:44:31 · answer #2 · answered by Rationality Personified 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Our challenge is to replace oil now, before it runs out, so that we have a whole world of options rather than a narrow window of desperation.
Oil has many uses, and there are alternatives for every single one. So it will need to be a systematic approach. Petrol replacements, lubricant replacements, etc. It's all out there. Unfortunately giant oil funds most political campaigns and real, visionary leadership is required to overcome their influence.
2007-10-16 05:16:17 · answer #3 · answered by buddhamonkeyboy 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Put it this way. Im 40. I hope to live till 90. I honestly doubt that oil is gonna run out within the next 50 years so i dont give a damn.
2007-10-16 02:35:49 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
we will probably go for the origin of all energy in our solar system, the sun.
wind turbines, solar cells, sea waves and bio fuels are all a conversion of the energy of the sun.
however, to perfect the technologies that utilize these sources of energy, and other technologies which allow storage of energy for the time it is needed, requests a huge investment in research and application of innovative technology, and as long as energy from fossil fuels is comparatively cheap, the incentive to invest in these future technologies is insufficient.
2007-10-16 02:32:43 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I take it a day at a time =)
2007-10-16 11:52:34 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋