more on The Long Emergency

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Robert J. Berger" <rberger () ibd com>
Date: July 16, 2005 5:31:14 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>, Dewayne Hendricks  
<dewayne () warpspeed com>
Cc: Udhay Shankar N <udhay () pobox com>
Subject: Re: [IP] The Long Emergency


The article is interesting and does bring up many good points. I  
agree that its pretty darn sure that we are going to hit lots of  
problems due to increasing costs of Oil and Natural Gas.

But I don't think its quite as bleak as he says (unless the Un- 
reality based Neocons stay in power).

For instance, Trains could make a major comeback to handle the  
transportation load at dramatically lower energy costs than todays  
air and truck transport. We aren't going to run out of energy  
overnight and rebuilding a train network wouldn't be all that hard if  
we don't wait too long.

Then there could also be other technologies that can do major  
transportation of goods at much lower costs such as airships. These  
could be built at very low cost (comparatively) and could take  
advantage of hydrogen production as a lift gas. (I know every one  
will instantly think of the Hindenburg, but the German Zeppelins were  
not designed for using hydrogen. There are ways of doing this pretty  
safely).

A lot of what needs to happen to make our lives more energy efficient  
will happen through market forces as the price of gas goes up. This  
could even include the eventual devolution of Suburbia.

The worse thing we could do is to artificially hold back the price of  
oil. The most that should happen is to try to smooth out spikes, but  
let it be known far and wide that Oil and its related products will  
just keep getting more expensive.

We need to make is so that ex-Oil executives (particularly  
incompetent and previously unsuccessful oil executives) are not  
running the country.

Rob

On Jul 16, 2005, at 5:00 AM, Udhay Shankar N wrote:


> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Udhay Shankar N <udhay () pobox com>
> Date: July 16, 2005 4:51:56 AM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: The Long Emergency
>
>
> Dave,
>
> A long and thought-provoking article in the Rolling Stone on the  
> "long emergency" - based on the thesis that world oil production  
> has peaked, and what the consequences will be.
>
> Sure to generate lots of debate. ;-)
>
> http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/7203633
>
> Udhay

---
Robert J. Berger - Internet Bandwidth Development, LLC.
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