@paulos184 oh yes they are net exporters and are getting 45% of their energy already from alternatives. Read what I said. they are BECOMING oil free; not they are yet oil free. Its the same for brazil
Matt, don't let the technologists throw you off track, you have hit the nail on the head. You are completely correct in what you say. I am encouraged by someone your age that gets it. Others that have commented here do not get it.
"It's not our humanness that is broken, but our technique."
A fine quote. We spend a lot of time..myself included, talking about what we don't like about the way we live these days. I wonder if we could ever list the overall problem without pointing fingers? If we could find these problems without making anyone the villain, then perhaps we could start to determine how, in our OWN lives, we can A) stop contributing to the problem and B) start heading in a different direction?
Recently, it's more of a dollar crisis than a sudden oil crisis.
But it sure has brought up the fact that oil will eventually be depleted, and that the US is incredibly dependent on other nations for any kind of economic viability.
the world doesn't run on oil and fear, it runs on human intelligence and cooperative effort, the latter being greatly lacking lately because of socio-political-economic factors. The debate about peak oil would be a non-issue if we would only realize all the alternatives that exist, most of which have been enumerated here. We won't run out of solar power (and all its manifold manifestations) for billions of years. What we're really running out of is patience with business and politics as usual.
the problem really isn't with current technology, it's with leadership. Government has been subsidizing big oil to the tune of billions a year for many years and sustainable technologies maybe a few millions now and then. For things to change for the better that has got to reverse.
The question to me isn't whether we have viable alternatives to oil, it's whether we will be able to convert fast enough to avoid a massive societal meltdown. The alternatives haven't really been considered thus far for economical and technological reasons. I'll list a few for your consideration.
Oil from algae is the most promising technology being developed. It's similar to growing ethanol from corn, but you can get much much higher oil yields per acre. It's predicted that it could be sold for around $25/barrel. The technology can be used in most terrains and it comes with the added benefit that it cleans air pollution. Research on it began in the 70s and was abruptly stopped when OPEC dropped oil prices massively to destroy all competition. OPEC = world's largest monopoly.
Next on the list of viable alternatives is oil from coal. This is a technology that Hitler's scientists developed, so it's been around for a long time and is proven. However, upfront costs are prohibitive. This technology has been revived by South African company who is now instrumental in the building of several plants in China. Red tape in the USA is so thick that only after 25 years of effort, has one such company managed to open its doors. BTW, the USA is in no danger of running out of coal.
Then there are cars run on hyrdrogen fuel cells, electricity, liquid natural gas (LNG). For the most part these all require the masses to buy a new vehicle. Conversion kits might be possible for converting gas cars to run on LNG or fuel cells. Take a look into the "Pickens Plan".
Great video. I just listened to a live broadcast from the author you mentioned (he phoned Kauai an hour ago). What timing - I have been pondering this matter half the day today. I think you are right, this discussion is not rational - it is something deeper. I'm working on a pertinent video - more soon...
We could do fusion, indeed it's probably already done in secret. Solar, wind, geothermal are huge potential sources. Cars could get 100 mpg without too much trouble.
Hydrogenesis might work well on a small scale (village). But I don't know if it can solve our economy's energy crisis. not unless we drastically restructure how we live. bacteria are not going to replace the energy represented by 85 million barrels of oil a day.
hydrogen is not a solution to an energy production crisis; it is just a rather inefficient way to store energy produced by other means. electrolysis gets about as much energy out of water in hydrogen that it puts in...
...through some other means. so there is really no useful application of hydrogen fuel. it is really cool that its "waste" is just water vapor, but that doesn't make it efficient.
Hi, I liked your video, pretty much the same response when I learned about peak oil 4 years go. It's scary to see it all unfolding. It's important to keep in mind that it's not exactly about "running out" of oil - it's about running out of cheap oil. It's a massive economic crisis brought about by geological limitations. This is the point so many people seem to miss. If there was any alternative out there as cheap as oil, people would already be using it, especially at these prices.
The truth of the matter is that the US has more oil in shale than any other country on the planet, we just cant touch it. Also, the US has the most coal on the planet and can do coal to oil but the congress continues to impliment bills that put costs on coal which would jack up the coast of coal to oil technology.
As long as there is money to be made the "oilconomy" will push for growth, growth, growth. Until it hits the stone. The tombstone of it's own making. Then everyone will say What? If society & economy do not mend their ways governments deal with it using war and famine. They know this and are waiting the THE event.
Time to reforest the earth and see how to do everything completely without earth oil. There will still be vegetable & animal oil. Exactly right.
don't worry... invisible hand of free market will fix invisible problems of invincible civilisation. so couple of million americans have to move out of their houses, BUT they can buy cheap tents produced in china! and they'll get a bonus frisbee with every purchase over $199...
It is frightening to see you becoming so pessimistic. Don't we need to be developing transitional ideas for a post-petroleum economy? What other choice do we have? Something will take the place of "civilization"...we will either be resilient enough or we will won't be around. In my opinion we are facing one of two possible situations: simple collapse of human civilization OR the sixth mass species extinction OR possibility BOTH. We need to remember what really matter in life.
I like high oil costs. I think it should be at $10 per gallon. Then maybe some of these huge ass trucks and hummers will get off the road. Jack it up OPEC, jack it up!!!!
I agree with what ReAnderson90 said. That something catastrophic is probably going to happen to the world. I think throughout history people tend to think that the species is special in a sense even though to the Earth, we are merely an insignificant speck in the universe. The human species as a whole, might not end, but the world as people know it might be very different several years into the future.
If I were an oil PR man, I wouldn't put my industry out of business by hiking prices way up forcing the market to find new (non-oil) energy sources.
All the data I can find shows global oil production shrinking the past several years (despite more wells being drilled) even as demand has increased. Do you have an explanation for this?
New York Times featured an article "Methane in Deep Earth: A Possible New Source of Energy" reporting on new research that partly confirms the claim in this book-- that the methane deep in the earth's mantle is primordial (not due to decayed buried vegetation) and is the source of petroleum. The article showed how methane can be generated from water and carbonate rock when the applied pressure is equal to that found in the mantle.
LIVERMORE, Calif. — Untapped reserves of methane, the main component in natural gas, may be found deep in Earth's crust, according to a recently released report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). These reserves could be a virtually inexhaustible source of energy for future generations.
Methane (CH4) formed by combining the carbon in calcite with the hydrogen in water. The reaction occurred over a range of temperatures and pressures. Methane production was most favorable at 900 degrees Fahrenheit and 70,000 atmospheres of pressure.
The experiments show that a non-biological source of hydrocarbons may lie in Earth's mantle and was created from reactions between water and rock — not just from the decomposition of living organisms. -PNAS
$150 a barrel oil is leading to the collapse of the world economy. OPEC wouldn't do that on purpose. They'd rather keep their customers alive, wouldn't they?
Do you think the high oil prices are hurting the oil stocks? And isn't there plenty of time to lower the price again before the entire civilization re-tools? And won't theses interests just use their wealth to buy and control the new "tools"?
"Exxon Mobil saw one of its biggest stocks gains ever, over 30 percent, in the second half of 2006 when crude prices tanked from over $70 to around $50 a barrel and investors flocked to this "safe haven" category, according to Oppenheimer energy analyst Fadel Gheit.
But oil prices don't have to tank for these companies' stocks to go up - they gained between 15 and 31 percent in 2007 when oil prices soared 60 percent." -CNN
About 20 nations produce more than 80% of the world's oil. In half those countries, production is flat or permanently declining. New oil field discoveries peak in the 60s. New discoveries are increasingly difficult to extract. I don't know about the mantle producing more oil. If it is, it hasn't been doing it fast enough to matter.
The presence of biomarkers in all sampled gas and oil deposits tested seems to suggest that an abiotic theory of oil creation is untenable. It is possible, but 99% of experts seem to agree oil comes from a biological process.
4 out of 5 dentists surveyed... What's your reference for the biomarker claim? Gold's book doesn't posit that oil is aboitic BTW. Deep Hot BIOsphere. ;-)
My mistake. I would welcome discovery of methane metabolizing bacteria living deeper than the 6 km or so that has been proven so far. It would be more evidence to support the Gaia hypothesis. But is there evidence to suggest that new hydrocarbons are being created faster than we are extracting them? Worldwide production has been declining for some years... so it doesn't seem like this is the case.
Google Extremophiles theguardians : Microbes that live in conditions that would kill other creatures. It was not until the 1970's that such creatures were recognized, but the more researchers look, the more they discover that most archaea, some bacteria and a few protists can survive in the harshest and strangest of environments. The core of the Earth is huge, and Geothermal is also an option.
you know its interesting with so many prophecies of the ending of days or a cycle or whatever you want to call it combine with the very real state of our world i truly am starting to believe that something catastrophic is coming...
the end of civilisation will not happen due to oil, because Sweden and Denmark are becoming oil free economies. Its more like America will collapse
dancthegr 5 months ago
@dancthegr hahaha - Sweden and Denmark oil free economies?! LOL
paulos184 3 months ago
@paulos184 oh yes they are net exporters and are getting 45% of their energy already from alternatives. Read what I said. they are BECOMING oil free; not they are yet oil free. Its the same for brazil
dancthegr 1 month ago
Matt, don't let the technologists throw you off track, you have hit the nail on the head. You are completely correct in what you say. I am encouraged by someone your age that gets it. Others that have commented here do not get it.
jimbobubbadj 2 years ago
god bless you for thinking.
neilutubename 3 years ago
"It's not our humanness that is broken, but our technique."
A fine quote. We spend a lot of time..myself included, talking about what we don't like about the way we live these days. I wonder if we could ever list the overall problem without pointing fingers? If we could find these problems without making anyone the villain, then perhaps we could start to determine how, in our OWN lives, we can A) stop contributing to the problem and B) start heading in a different direction?
daf
dafremen 3 years ago
Recently, it's more of a dollar crisis than a sudden oil crisis.
But it sure has brought up the fact that oil will eventually be depleted, and that the US is incredibly dependent on other nations for any kind of economic viability.
rseveran 3 years ago
i f we are truly human we shall discover a method to overcome the madness.
matrixcmitech 3 years ago
Were aul gohna daiiiiii! That's the truth.
MaBu888 3 years ago
the world doesn't run on oil and fear, it runs on human intelligence and cooperative effort, the latter being greatly lacking lately because of socio-political-economic factors. The debate about peak oil would be a non-issue if we would only realize all the alternatives that exist, most of which have been enumerated here. We won't run out of solar power (and all its manifold manifestations) for billions of years. What we're really running out of is patience with business and politics as usual.
CliffKFF 3 years ago
I hope that we transform our ways so that the world begins to run on cooperation, etc. Right now it doesn't.
Solar energy will be avail. for billions of years. But with current technology, we cannot power our consumerist ways. It is too energy intensive.
0ThouArtThat0 3 years ago
the problem really isn't with current technology, it's with leadership. Government has been subsidizing big oil to the tune of billions a year for many years and sustainable technologies maybe a few millions now and then. For things to change for the better that has got to reverse.
CliffKFF 3 years ago
The question to me isn't whether we have viable alternatives to oil, it's whether we will be able to convert fast enough to avoid a massive societal meltdown. The alternatives haven't really been considered thus far for economical and technological reasons. I'll list a few for your consideration.
johntheunique 3 years ago
Oil from algae is the most promising technology being developed. It's similar to growing ethanol from corn, but you can get much much higher oil yields per acre. It's predicted that it could be sold for around $25/barrel. The technology can be used in most terrains and it comes with the added benefit that it cleans air pollution. Research on it began in the 70s and was abruptly stopped when OPEC dropped oil prices massively to destroy all competition. OPEC = world's largest monopoly.
johntheunique 3 years ago
Next on the list of viable alternatives is oil from coal. This is a technology that Hitler's scientists developed, so it's been around for a long time and is proven. However, upfront costs are prohibitive. This technology has been revived by South African company who is now instrumental in the building of several plants in China. Red tape in the USA is so thick that only after 25 years of effort, has one such company managed to open its doors. BTW, the USA is in no danger of running out of coal.
johntheunique 3 years ago
Then there are cars run on hyrdrogen fuel cells, electricity, liquid natural gas (LNG). For the most part these all require the masses to buy a new vehicle. Conversion kits might be possible for converting gas cars to run on LNG or fuel cells. Take a look into the "Pickens Plan".
johntheunique 3 years ago
Yeah, I know, gloom and doom, yada yada.
Been there, done that.
Humanity tends to not learn until it HAS to.
Birth pangs. The birth process looks horrible -- screaming, pain, blood.
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous." --Alfred North Whitehead.
StevenErnest 3 years ago
Great video. I just listened to a live broadcast from the author you mentioned (he phoned Kauai an hour ago). What timing - I have been pondering this matter half the day today. I think you are right, this discussion is not rational - it is something deeper. I'm working on a pertinent video - more soon...
debswildhoney 3 years ago
We could do fusion, indeed it's probably already done in secret. Solar, wind, geothermal are huge potential sources. Cars could get 100 mpg without too much trouble.
jburt56 3 years ago
Hydrogenesis might work well on a small scale (village). But I don't know if it can solve our economy's energy crisis. not unless we drastically restructure how we live. bacteria are not going to replace the energy represented by 85 million barrels of oil a day.
hydrogen is not a solution to an energy production crisis; it is just a rather inefficient way to store energy produced by other means. electrolysis gets about as much energy out of water in hydrogen that it puts in...
0ThouArtThat0 3 years ago
...through some other means. so there is really no useful application of hydrogen fuel. it is really cool that its "waste" is just water vapor, but that doesn't make it efficient.
0ThouArtThat0 3 years ago
Where will the hydrogen come from?
0ThouArtThat0 3 years ago
RoadRunner, the cited study was published in 2004.
patternsinchaos 3 years ago
Hi, I liked your video, pretty much the same response when I learned about peak oil 4 years go. It's scary to see it all unfolding. It's important to keep in mind that it's not exactly about "running out" of oil - it's about running out of cheap oil. It's a massive economic crisis brought about by geological limitations. This is the point so many people seem to miss. If there was any alternative out there as cheap as oil, people would already be using it, especially at these prices.
FelizJesusbirth 3 years ago
The truth of the matter is that the US has more oil in shale than any other country on the planet, we just cant touch it. Also, the US has the most coal on the planet and can do coal to oil but the congress continues to impliment bills that put costs on coal which would jack up the coast of coal to oil technology.
AVP123xyz 3 years ago
As long as there is money to be made the "oilconomy" will push for growth, growth, growth. Until it hits the stone. The tombstone of it's own making. Then everyone will say What? If society & economy do not mend their ways governments deal with it using war and famine. They know this and are waiting the THE event.
Time to reforest the earth and see how to do everything completely without earth oil. There will still be vegetable & animal oil. Exactly right.
tenagliac 3 years ago
don't worry... invisible hand of free market will fix invisible problems of invincible civilisation. so couple of million americans have to move out of their houses, BUT they can buy cheap tents produced in china! and they'll get a bonus frisbee with every purchase over $199...
jogayot 3 years ago
And Frisbee's can be hours of fun not to mention distraction from annoying realities.
patternsinchaos 3 years ago
Perhaps instead of returning to nature, we should realize that we are nature.
weyjoh 3 years ago
It is frightening to see you becoming so pessimistic. Don't we need to be developing transitional ideas for a post-petroleum economy? What other choice do we have? Something will take the place of "civilization"...we will either be resilient enough or we will won't be around. In my opinion we are facing one of two possible situations: simple collapse of human civilization OR the sixth mass species extinction OR possibility BOTH. We need to remember what really matter in life.
2bsirius 3 years ago 2
I like high oil costs. I think it should be at $10 per gallon. Then maybe some of these huge ass trucks and hummers will get off the road. Jack it up OPEC, jack it up!!!!
AllahConsciousness 3 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Listen Fuckers, this is what you must do.
Get your hands on a dozen sniper-rifles.
assemble a team of snipers.
make a simultaneous attack on Government officials and or their families.
select new targets.
LimpLoser 3 years ago
I hope I am wrong and you are right.
0ThouArtThat0 3 years ago
I agree with what ReAnderson90 said. That something catastrophic is probably going to happen to the world. I think throughout history people tend to think that the species is special in a sense even though to the Earth, we are merely an insignificant speck in the universe. The human species as a whole, might not end, but the world as people know it might be very different several years into the future.
HaleyMary 3 years ago
Sounds like oil company propaganda to me.
patternsinchaos 3 years ago 2
If I were an oil PR man, I wouldn't put my industry out of business by hiking prices way up forcing the market to find new (non-oil) energy sources.
All the data I can find shows global oil production shrinking the past several years (despite more wells being drilled) even as demand has increased. Do you have an explanation for this?
0ThouArtThat0 3 years ago
Yes. In a word the reason for the production shrinking is spelled OPEC. Pumping less. Controlling supply. Driving the price up.
patternsinchaos 3 years ago
When you're getting $150 a barrel you can pump less and make more longer. Is this too simple of an explanation??? Read Gold's Deep Hot Biosphere.
patternsinchaos 3 years ago
New York Times featured an article "Methane in Deep Earth: A Possible New Source of Energy" reporting on new research that partly confirms the claim in this book-- that the methane deep in the earth's mantle is primordial (not due to decayed buried vegetation) and is the source of petroleum. The article showed how methane can be generated from water and carbonate rock when the applied pressure is equal to that found in the mantle.
patternsinchaos 3 years ago
LIVERMORE, Calif. — Untapped reserves of methane, the main component in natural gas, may be found deep in Earth's crust, according to a recently released report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). These reserves could be a virtually inexhaustible source of energy for future generations.
patternsinchaos 3 years ago
Methane (CH4) formed by combining the carbon in calcite with the hydrogen in water. The reaction occurred over a range of temperatures and pressures. Methane production was most favorable at 900 degrees Fahrenheit and 70,000 atmospheres of pressure.
The experiments show that a non-biological source of hydrocarbons may lie in Earth's mantle and was created from reactions between water and rock — not just from the decomposition of living organisms. -PNAS
patternsinchaos 3 years ago
$150 a barrel oil is leading to the collapse of the world economy. OPEC wouldn't do that on purpose. They'd rather keep their customers alive, wouldn't they?
0ThouArtThat0 3 years ago
OPEC's production rates have only fallen below demand since 2005. Why would they just decide to do that then, instead of much earlier?
0ThouArtThat0 3 years ago
Do you think the high oil prices are hurting the oil stocks? And isn't there plenty of time to lower the price again before the entire civilization re-tools? And won't theses interests just use their wealth to buy and control the new "tools"?
patternsinchaos 3 years ago
Oil co. stocks go up just as much when the price of a barrel drops as when it rises. Look at the statistics.
0ThouArtThat0 3 years ago
"Exxon Mobil saw one of its biggest stocks gains ever, over 30 percent, in the second half of 2006 when crude prices tanked from over $70 to around $50 a barrel and investors flocked to this "safe haven" category, according to Oppenheimer energy analyst Fadel Gheit.
But oil prices don't have to tank for these companies' stocks to go up - they gained between 15 and 31 percent in 2007 when oil prices soared 60 percent." -CNN
0ThouArtThat0 3 years ago
About 20 nations produce more than 80% of the world's oil. In half those countries, production is flat or permanently declining. New oil field discoveries peak in the 60s. New discoveries are increasingly difficult to extract. I don't know about the mantle producing more oil. If it is, it hasn't been doing it fast enough to matter.
0ThouArtThat0 3 years ago
The presence of biomarkers in all sampled gas and oil deposits tested seems to suggest that an abiotic theory of oil creation is untenable. It is possible, but 99% of experts seem to agree oil comes from a biological process.
0ThouArtThat0 3 years ago
4 out of 5 dentists surveyed... What's your reference for the biomarker claim? Gold's book doesn't posit that oil is aboitic BTW. Deep Hot BIOsphere. ;-)
patternsinchaos 3 years ago
My mistake. I would welcome discovery of methane metabolizing bacteria living deeper than the 6 km or so that has been proven so far. It would be more evidence to support the Gaia hypothesis. But is there evidence to suggest that new hydrocarbons are being created faster than we are extracting them? Worldwide production has been declining for some years... so it doesn't seem like this is the case.
0ThouArtThat0 3 years ago
Google Extremophiles theguardians : Microbes that live in conditions that would kill other creatures. It was not until the 1970's that such creatures were recognized, but the more researchers look, the more they discover that most archaea, some bacteria and a few protists can survive in the harshest and strangest of environments. The core of the Earth is huge, and Geothermal is also an option.
patternsinchaos 3 years ago
you know its interesting with so many prophecies of the ending of days or a cycle or whatever you want to call it combine with the very real state of our world i truly am starting to believe that something catastrophic is coming...
ReAnderson90 3 years ago