Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bilow who wrote (65013)	1/10/2003 11:06:33 AM
From: Dennis O'Bell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi Noel de Leon; Re: Yongquist's statement: "In summary, biomass, at least considering the size of world population today which has to be supported by crops, cannot be diverted from food supplies in significant quantities to be important as a liquid fuel, and at best energy conversion efficiencies from biomass to oil are low." Genetically modified plants solve these issues. We have hardly scratched the surface of what engineering is possible in this. We have decades before we oil really gets tight, so there is no rush. And the financial reward for doing the research is so attractive that it is bound to happen. At present we are probably consuming at a rate of several hundred millions of years of plant life per century in the form of coal and oil. I don't believe even the most optimistic genetically engineered oil seed crops can make a dent in this disparity. According to this web page about forests and wood, there was already an energy crisis due to deforestation in 18'th century England ! Because of the relative late development of shipping and industry around the North Sea basin, shortage of wood only appeared in the modern period. In England the first signs of timber shortage were noticed during the wars against France in the 1620's. In order to obtain enough timber for its fleet, England started to import wood supplies, first from the Baltic's and Scandinavia, later from the Colonies in North America. In the middle of the 18th century Europe faced an acute shortage of wood, and as a consequence, an energy crisis. The response to the energy shortage was the increasing use of an inferior fuel: coal. forth.stir.ac.uk I think we better get fusion working myself, though progress toward that direction has been frustratingly slow so far.