X-Message-Number: 24106 Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 00:41:17 -0700 From: James Swayze <> Subject: Re: Coninued use of oil [off topic-- my own rating] References: <> >Message #24102 >From: "michaelprice" <> >References: <> >Subject: Oil crisis - what crisis? >Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 11:44:51 +0100 > >Mark Plus tells us "told you so" - just as people were 30 years ago... > >Have a look at the slides in: >http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3623549.stm >about world oil reserves. >In particular, look at slide #2, in the slide show: > >"How long will it last? >The short answer is no-one knows, but even the oil industry >suspects the world "peak" is now approaching. > >It says it has 40 years of proven reserves at the moment - >but it also said that 30 years ago. > >In fact, the estimate has actually increased in recent years >as production has fallen. Cutting consumption would prolong >oil's life." > >Cheers, >Michael C Price >http://mcp.longevity-report.com >http://www.hedweb.com/manworld.htm > > It may well be so that reserves of oil have 40 more years or even more use left. In fact they can be stretched far further by ever more technological advances to squeeze more from every drop. Reconstitution technology as showcased here, http://www.changingworldtech.com/techfr.htm, will stretch the use of fossil fuel and petroleum based products even indefinitely without oil in the ground based reserves. However, is it really so wise to do so? Continued dependence on Middle East oil only fuels hate towards the western countries that buy and use it while at the same time feeding the fomenters of said hate with more and more cash to pay for terrorism against us. It's a perverse bargain! Terrorism begins in the schools and mosques supported by despot governments that fear democracy and with the freedom democracy allows the loss of their power. By buying their oil we only hurt ourselves. Let them eat oil, it's the only thing they have of value and it has artificially supported their numbers beyond what their food producing resources could otherwise support. Because of this now their youth are disenfranchised, feeling they have no future and simultaneously nd perversely taught that democracy -- the very lifestyle of freedom that could offer them a future -- is their enemy. They are raised to be perfect fodder for suicide bomb makers. Continued use of burning carbon for energy is hurting the environment. Whether one believes in global warming or not the new threat is the dimming of the light able to reach the surface coming from the sun. All that haze can't be good for everyone's lungs and it will adversely effect the weather. With less sunlight we get less evaporation and therefore less rain. These effects are already being felt with ground water reserves under greater pressure from irrigation farming and those ground water reserves not being replenished. Do we really expect to experience a singularity built still upon the old, nay ancient tech of fossil fuel burning? It's only one step above burning wood for crying out loud. The Sahara Desert is a desert largely due to the fact that humanity denuded its forests for fuel. It is now expanding for the same reason. Continued fossil fuel use is not the way I imagine the future. It is high time we lead in the development of alternatives that are not only renewable but also less pollution producing. Hydrogen is my choice and the way I've always imagined the future. Right now a true phenomenon is happening that has not ever been seen in history. The capitalist revolution is overtaking China and India, the two most populated countries in the world. Just decades ago both were in the dark ages tech wise. Now greater and greater numbers of every day folk in these countries are realizing the western lifestyle and they yearn for it. It's a marvelous thing really but it has consequences. More and more of them now are able to own the same things westerns have. Right now the numbers are low but the rise is exponential. The growth of these economies is itself the first phenomenon. Never before has any country developed a modern for everyone lifestyle this fast ever in history. But here is the rub, imagine what the environmental damage will be when all, by then, 3 billion of them each own the equivalent of what those in the west have. Two cars in every garage, a refrigerator for every home, all the rest? The toll on the environment is going to enormous and the next phenomenon if we don't develop better cleaner and more renewable energy and lead them toward its use. If we don't then there's little economic incentive for them to. Lastly, I don't think it is wise to simply use up every drop of a single resource just because it is there for the taking. It might have a better use we don't know of yet that some future technology will discover. Hell maybe the planet needs a certain amount for its health, I don't know and this seems unlikely.... but still. What does it say about us as a race of beings if we can't do better than use things up until they don't exist anymore? Ok, one more lastly. I can't imagine a worse environment for cryonics and the future of 'our future' and the direction we hope it takes then to not get futurized right now and get off the old tech way of fossil fuel use. If not it only means more dependence on countries that hate us but love our money. They don't know it but they work against their own best interest but what else do you expect from people that let irrationalism rule their every move. By this I am not being racial I am referring to their social evolutionary insistence on leading lives ruled by theocracy, this in itself is irrational. Responding to our own theocratics the terror mongers hope to bring about a reenactment of the Crusades. Our own messianic obsessed leaders seem more than willing to oblige. This is a self escalating meme action and cannot be good for a peaceful future for immortalists. All we can do is what little we can to change our leadership and nudge them toward a more rational course and more future friendly use of technology and fuel development. James -- Member: Cryonics Institute of Michigan http://www.cryonics.org The Immortalist Society http://www.cryonics.org/info.html The Society for Venturism http://www.venturist.org Immortality Institute http://www.imminst.org Methuselah Foundation http://www.methuselahfoundation.org Methuselah Mouse Prize http://www.methuselahmouse.org [Give $$$ for life!] World Transhumanist Association http://www.transhumanism.org/ Marijuana Policy Project http://www.mpp.org American Civil Liberties Union http://www.aclu.org Nat. Resources Defense Council http://www.nrdc.org Act For Change http://www.actforchange.org People for American Way http://www.pfaw.org MY WEBSITE: http://www.davidpascal.com/swayze/ Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=24106