[colug-432] Overheard a few days ago in a library dedicated to Frank Lloyd Wright

[Travis Sidelinger]

On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 8:33 PM, Joshua Kramer <josh at globalherald.net> wrote:
>
> Keep in mind that it's not only transportation and food that requires
> petrol.  Imagine if the plastic required to manufacture one cell phone went
> from costing a few pennies to costing $10 or more... and the chemistry for
> much of what we have today - including pharma - is dependent on having easy
> petroleum.

Yup, manufacturing is a huge portion.

>
> I think algae is a big key to this; conservative estimates say that if we
> could build algae fields covering 1/10 to 1/5 of the mojave desert we could
> supply *all* of the diesel fuel used in the U.S.  But that's just diesel...
> not gasoline.

That last figure I've seen is that the cost to convert algae to diesel
is about 50$ / gallon.  That's pretty far from the current $3.25/gal.
You'll need massive amounts of water and fertilizer.  Solar and Wind
are already here and in mass production.  We just won't be able to
zoom zoom our SUV's around in the future.

>
> But do you realize the panic that would ensue - and the economic collapse
> that would probably follow soon after - if the general public suddenly
> thought that there was an end to petroleum this soon?  That's what the
> higher ups in the various organizations (who know what's *really* going on)
> are afraid of.

Yes, I'm panicking too.  I could have as little as a year to get solar
cells installed and learn to garden.

>
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