Peak Oil - Doom and gloom for Ireland

[badabing]

Even if there was no talk about global warming..green house gasses etc, you would have to admit the averave joe soap would be still getting pretty bemused by all the strange weather patterns we are experiencing over the last few years...

To the previous poster, yes the tsunami had nothing to do with global warming

 

[Omega]

all this doom and gloom about oil is depressing - what about Peak Bagel?
http://audio.todayfm.com/audio/Gift_Doom.mp3

 

[z108]

Yes, the Asian tsunami was caused by an earthquake and had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with global warming.

To the previous poster, yes the tsunami had nothing to do with global warming

Thanks for the response
It was half a rhetorical question but the point of asking was because there is a perception from myself anyway that all unwanted or catastrophic weather everywhere gets blamed on global warming but the worst of it such as the tsunami actually had nothing to do with Global warming at all !





(ps, I dont want anyone to infer I dont take caring for our planet seriously in case anyone commits the sin of jumping to premature conclusions)

 

[Remix]

On the lighter side (it is Friday afterall) one thing you can say for the Global Warming debate is it makes for great headlines. Here's a tiny sample that have appeared in the past year:

Scientist Implicates Worms in Global Warming!

Earth Mother getting angry: American Indians Speak on Global Warming

Father of climatology dismisses global warming as 'hooey': 'There is a lot of money to be made in this'

Cat Invasion Due to Global Warming

France Invaded by Swarms of Giant Hornets - Global Warming Blamed

Leonardo DiCaprio has warned that humans face extinction because of global warming

Brothel owner blames lack of clients on Global Warming

Hotel places Gore's global warming book in night stand instead of Bible

President of Czech Republic Questions Gore's Sanity

Stephen Hawking Warns: Earth 'might end up like Venus, at 250 degrees centigrade; raining sulfuric acid'

Stephen Hawking Warns: Humans must go to space to survive

NUREMBERG-STYLE TRIALS PROPOSED FOR GLOBAL WARMING SKEPTICS

Study Predicts Global Warming Will Cause Children's Fevers To Soar

Report: Global Warming Worries Keeps Children Awake At Night

 

[joe sod]

Absolute rubbish. Large areas of agricultural land within the EU alone (including Ireland) are being used at zero- or near-zero production capacity because the EU subsidy regimes are based on the current necessity to avoid over-production of milk, beef, lamb etc. On a different level altogether, it hardly credible to argue that land in places like Zimbabwe is utilised at full production capacity.



People have been saying at least for the past 100+ years that the age of technological advance is at an end. Who was they guy who said around 1900 that, based on the then-current trends, and projecting for expected population growth, New York would be buried under six feet of horse manure by the year 2000 (or whenever)? Who was it who said sometime during the 20th century that there might sometime be a global market demand for five computers?

Setaside in europe is a tiny proportion of the worlds arable land also zimbabwe in global terms is insignificant in terms of global production (although very significant locally). The fact that set aside existed shows how productive the rest of the land became in europe through mechanisation and fertilisers. The era of set aside is ending soon anyway, it is largely a relic of european CAP policies in the eighties. In the eighties china and india were insignificant consumers compared to today. It is another case as I see so often in postings of focussing on the small picture but failing to appreciate the overall picture.

 

[z108]

all this doom and gloom about oil is depressing - what about Peak Bagel?
http://audio.todayfm.com/audio/Gift_Doom.mp3

Dont want to hijack the thread any more from issues but thats hilarious and the soundbites of GL talking about 'a small open economy' are hilarious

Setaside in europe is a tiny proportion of the worlds arable land also zimbabwe in global terms is insignificant in terms of global production (although very significant locally). The fact that set aside existed shows how productive the rest of the land became in europe through mechanisation and fertilisers. The era of set aside is ending soon anyway, it is largely a relic of european CAP policies in the eighties. In the eighties china and india were insignificant consumers compared to today. It is another case as I see so often in postings of focussing on the small picture but failing to appreciate the overall picture.

So is agricultural land the next big thing with 'ASSURED GUARANTEED RETURNS'

 

[ubiquitous]

Setaside in europe is a tiny proportion of the worlds arable land also zimbabwe in global terms is insignificant in terms of global production (although very significant locally). The fact that set aside existed shows how productive the rest of the land became in europe through mechanisation and fertilisers. The era of set aside is ending soon anyway, it is largely a relic of european CAP policies in the eighties.

Setaside is but a very minor factor in the current underproduction of Irish agriculture, which results partly from EU subsidy incentives and partly from other factors. The REPS scheme and the various afforestation schemes affect production capacity in land areas far more significant than those covered by Setaside.

Another major contributor is social change, including the decline in full-time farming and the trends towards hobby farming and "holiday home" farming. These trends have been replicated elsewhere within the EU and worldwide as income gaps have widened between agricultural work and other work.

If agri land was as scarce as you make out, these income gaps would have closed rather than widened in recent decades. Scarcity raises prices and incomes. Oversupply does the opposite. I think its pretty obvious that agriculture is still in oversupply over large areas of the world.

 

[barryo]

Nuclear power is the answer for Ireland. Not Uranium based - we should be looking at Thorium based Nuclear power. There is lots of this stuff and the only reason its not in widespread use today is due to the fact you cant make weapons from it and was thus considered a bad idea in the 50's. Its waste lasts 500 years instead of 10's of thousands also.

People who have a blanket mentality against Nuclear really should learn more about it..

 

[joe sod]

Nuclear power is the answer for Ireland. Not Uranium based - we should be looking at Thorium based Nuclear power. There is lots of this stuff and the only reason its not in widespread use today is due to the fact you cant make weapons from it and was thus considered a bad idea in the 50's. Its waste lasts 500 years instead of 10's of thousands also.

People who have a blanket mentality against Nuclear really should learn more about it..

I agree fully with this, Ive also heard about the potential of Thorium. I believe the world will finally switch to nuclear. But a switch to nuclear would have profound changes on the global economic system on transportation etc. It would probably necessitate more state control of energy supply and transportation as it would probably be too big an undertaking for the private sector. I think it would be a case of going back to the future as freight would probably have to be transported by rail powered by electricity. It would also mean that resources and government spending would also have to be prioritised for this. So I think centralisation and state control will have a resurgance.

 

[badabing]

Looks like the half life is very long..unless the half life is less when converted into U233. Also its not commercialised, that will be solved I guess, but it does seem to have potential in weapons too..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium

 

[rock3r]

Assuming that the human race builds several thousand nuclear power plants, what will that do to the availability of uranium? Do we have enough to power that many plants?

What are the costs of mining uranium and processing it so that it is usable as nuclear fuel?

Right now we have several hundred nuclear plants, and the price of Uranium has nearly doubled.

Also, there's a report out that shows that Europe can supply ALL of its energy needs from renewables.

What's needed? New, high-capacity interconnectors between Africa, Iceland and the continent. Geothermal from Iceland, solar from Africa and wind will help build a totally-reliable power supply. No blackouts, no brown-outs, no intermittency, no need to emit carbon.

 

[z108]

What's needed? New, high-capacity interconnectors between Africa, Iceland and the continent. Geothermal from Iceland, solar from Africa and wind will help build a totally-reliable power supply. No blackouts, no brown-outs, no intermittency, no need to emit carbon.

This depends on political leadership and will in the G8 and elsewhere. The UN seems pretty useless and underfunded.
If money influences politicial wills , newspapers and opinions, is there more money to be made out of non renewables than renewables ?

 

[rock3r]

Whether or not there's money to be made is up to the choices the world makes.

There's definitely trillions to be lost from flooded coastal cities and nuclear accidents