The Atomic Ocean Liner

[Default] Thus spake George Leppla :

AZ Nomad wrote:
On Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:08:28 -0500, George Leppla wrote:

Sooner or later, we have to get away from burning fossil fuels.
Nuclear, solar, wind, thermal.... there is an answer out there somewhere
and I hope we find it because we WANT to... before we HAVE to.


When a barral of oil is $500, then will there be a real push to find
other sources of energy, or heaven forbid conservation.

Yep... OPEC keeps enough oil in the pipeline to keep the price
reasonable so there is no incentive for research and development. Then
when something happens and the price goes up, everyone screams about
alternative energy.

Peak Oil. Peak Oil. Most petro-geologists suggest by the end of this
decade. A few are saying by the end of this year.


We are sitting on huge deposits of natural gas. A shift in use to that
would be a good short term solution while we ramped up non-fossil fuel
alternatives.

The european fusion research project looks promising. Still too
complex but it looks like it'll soon reach break even.
http://www.iter.org

Interesting. Thanks for the link. Anyone remember back when cutting
edge technology was being developed here in the US? Fusion research in
Europe... and we are still dealing with strip mines here.

Remember the Super Conducting Super Collider? That would have been
not much less capable than where LHC is now. Currently it's 16 large
holes, although I think 6 or 7 have been back filled already. After
20 years.
--

- dillon I am not invalid

The more I drink, the less I think. The less I think,
the better I feel. The better I feel, the more I drink.
And so goes the circle of life.