TBG, Honorary Mangere Residency! [HMR]. I never thought of it. New Zealand is seeking its own sovereignty, gradually peeling itself off Mumma England and in many ways being rudely weaned by Mumma herself. Knighthoods, MBEs, OBEs etc could be replaced by degrees of HMR. Ill think about that one.
On oil, which is my real field. For years I have maintained that the world will never run out, oil will be abandoned in the ground as obsolete. The world operated perfectly unhappily until this century without oil. People could be put to death perfectly effectively by walking up to them with a sword and giving them a slash or two. It was really only Hitler and his friends who started the obsession with oil by driving tanks over the top of Polish Cavalry and building the ubiquitous Volkswagen car, which may still be seen today. Similarly in the air and at sea, oil became endemic.
But notice what you said. Your friends say you wouldn't notice you'd been robbed if they left your tv, computer, fridge and hammock. How often do you refuel or change the oil in those? The pedants will remind us that these have an energy input to produce and there is a power supply at the end of the wire. True, but very small. More importantly, the end of the wire can be attached to photovoltaic cells, nuclear power stations, wood burners, coal burners, gas burners, heavy bitumen burners, windmills, sewage and waste generators, wave, hydro, etc. Oil is a little part of the possibilities. Some of these are more expensive to use than oil, but not much. That is why oil can't seem to get it's price up. People just swing over to coal or something else. There are hundreds of years supply available even at 20th century consumption levels.
We are at the beginning of some accelerating trends. Computers, Web, etc. combined with worldwide falling populations which has already started in many countries is going to, enhanced by better and better technology, make HMR a way of life for billions. They won't need much oil to fuel their 3D Web reality interaction systems.
Why go wandering around getting bitten by ants and jammed in airports?
The pharmaceutical, plastics and lubrication industries are relatively small and lubrication will go the way of fuel. Already, lubrication is much more efficient and oil is hardly changed in cars, turbines etc.
You really hit my hot buttons on this one!! I sure won't be buying shares in Saudi Arabia. They ought to sell it while they can.
Just to round it off, people panic about CO2, but a colleague and I worked out in 1988 that you can collect the gases from power stations, compress, cool, to liquid CO2 and tip it into the ocean as plant food or simply to sink to the bottom from whence it originally arose. By also seeding oceans with iron, you can produce billions of tons of biomass in areas otherwise sterile. 1kg of iron gives about 3 tons of biomass. The extra cost of CO2 collection and ocean disposal is 30% max and maybe 20%.
NGW |
