What I want to know is, when the time comes to switch to electric or hydrogen, what the heck are we going to do with all the old gas cars? They won’t be any use for parts and we won’t have any fuel for them. That will be one big-ass recycling effort.
Wish I could remember the reference,but someone theorized that the earth was still making oil. Organic ocean debris gradually subducted under the tectonic plates and cooked in the magma.
dberanek says:When they pump the last barrel of oil then they will worry about alternative fuels. Not before.
That’s not what is so scary. What is scary is that oil is the raw material of so much of our other non-fuel products - think plastic, fertilizers, medicines, construction, etc. We might someday find an alternative source of energy but raw materials??
aerwaltPro says:Wish I could remember the reference,but someone theorized that the earth was still making oil. Organic ocean debris gradually subducted under the tectonic plates and cooked in the magma.
Not really. The earth may still be creating oil but not by subduction. Heating any organic matter to the temperatures of magma would break all of the carbon chains and would no longer be raw material for oil. The other processes that result in oil proceed at a pace thousands of times slower than what we are using up the oil.
skulker, there are already a few products, such as refillable water filtering bottles, out there made from a plastic made from corn starch. Unfortunately, at this point they are expensive “specialty” items. As for fertilizers and medicines, we need to again turn to plant and/or animal-based products and go back to smaller, organic farms rather than huge “factory farms”. Finally, if you Google “green construction materials” you’ll see that steps are being taken there, as well. It all just needs to be more accepted and supported by a public that’s afraid of leaving its established comfort zone, as well as by big business, of course.
ndroberts95 over 15 years ago
It drives me wild that these old cartoons are so relevant today. Have we gone nowhere?
ChiehHsia over 15 years ago
Goin’ nowhere fast, dude.
dberanek over 15 years ago
When they pump the last barrel of oil then they will worry about alternative fuels. Not before.
ChiehHsia over 15 years ago
What I want to know is, when the time comes to switch to electric or hydrogen, what the heck are we going to do with all the old gas cars? They won’t be any use for parts and we won’t have any fuel for them. That will be one big-ass recycling effort.
ana_demeter over 15 years ago
Roger, etc: Duh- have you not heard of “planned obsoletion”?
aerwalt over 15 years ago
Wish I could remember the reference,but someone theorized that the earth was still making oil. Organic ocean debris gradually subducted under the tectonic plates and cooked in the magma.
Skulker over 15 years ago
dberanek says: When they pump the last barrel of oil then they will worry about alternative fuels. Not before. That’s not what is so scary. What is scary is that oil is the raw material of so much of our other non-fuel products - think plastic, fertilizers, medicines, construction, etc. We might someday find an alternative source of energy but raw materials??
Skulker over 15 years ago
aerwaltPro says: Wish I could remember the reference,but someone theorized that the earth was still making oil. Organic ocean debris gradually subducted under the tectonic plates and cooked in the magma. Not really. The earth may still be creating oil but not by subduction. Heating any organic matter to the temperatures of magma would break all of the carbon chains and would no longer be raw material for oil. The other processes that result in oil proceed at a pace thousands of times slower than what we are using up the oil.
bloomfan over 15 years ago
skulker, there are already a few products, such as refillable water filtering bottles, out there made from a plastic made from corn starch. Unfortunately, at this point they are expensive “specialty” items. As for fertilizers and medicines, we need to again turn to plant and/or animal-based products and go back to smaller, organic farms rather than huge “factory farms”. Finally, if you Google “green construction materials” you’ll see that steps are being taken there, as well. It all just needs to be more accepted and supported by a public that’s afraid of leaving its established comfort zone, as well as by big business, of course.