What do you think will happen when we run out of oil?

You're right but governements have already constructed nuclear energy plants, and I know that the government of Ontario ( province in Canada ) are planning to make more.

 

it takes time to get used to change, i didn't say it was the end of the world, we could hypothetically survive without oil, but to do that we would have to adapt our lifestyle which takes time. People fear change and the fight fear with panic, and thats why i believe there would be wars and riots.

 

I understand what you mean, but you have to put beliefs apart and start pumping in facts in order to make an informed decision.

 

touche, from a factual basis i guess your right. But everything always look better on paper.

 

How long is it until this is actually predicted to happen?

 

Oil production will probably peak in the next few years (less than 10), though plenty of economists have said it has already happened.


Just a quick aside to those talking about nuclear, uranium will not last for ever, some have predicted we will effectively run out of it within a century. We'd then have to switch to another nuclear fuel, probably thorium.

 

I agree with the war scenario. Even if we find an alternative sourse of energy, it'll be the richer countries who can afford to implement it into their society. The poorer countries won't be too happy about that.

 

IMO with the current trends of the world and its mindless consumption of resources without a "gameplan" to slowly replace current methods so that the transition will be smooth and not chaos as some have suggested, all I can hope for is a breakthrough in some new method.

Some think ethanol-based fuels (mostly from corn) are something that is being held back by the bigtime oil industries, but tbh after doing some calculations if we used ALL the corn that we produce in the USA we wouldn't even meet 10% of the fuel need, and thats without eating any of it. It's a good method but just not ample enough to support our growing consumption.

Nuclear reactors are decent but dangerous. Recent catastrophes in Japan prove that, and although there the most efficient method at hand, they are constant time bombs ready to go off in light of bad conditions. The last thing we need to do is set up enough of these to use as a sole source of energy, as that would put them close enough to actually interact with each other should one fail and be destroyed (explode). Have you ever played minesweeper? Yea wouldn't want that to happen

I am personally shooting for the stabilization of a fusion reaction to be in our near future. Fusion is the same process that stars (including our very sun) use to generate massive amounts of energy without dying down for thousands of years. Most of our methods of energy such as burning fuel and even nuclear reactors use processes to acquire energy by breaking down materials. Fusion actually creates many times more energy from actually combining smaller materials into larger compounds. This is far more efficient than any current method, the problem is that it is yet to be containable as you know stars experience random flares of magnetic energy causing the produced energy to lash out, which would destroy any man-made machine that we have thought to create it in yet.

I know I have rambled on for awhile now, sorry for that but this is something I have put a decent amount of research into since I am a chemistry major with a physics minor so my current research is actually focused on the next energy source that will bail the world out of its dependence on fossil fuels, so hope I contributed something to conversation, what do you think?

 

And how is Electic cars produced ? What is Electric cars made ​​of? The paint, plastic covers the interior, rubber tires, what are they made ​​of? (oil) Where does the power come from the electric cars get? Power is not an energy source, power is only a product obtained by burning other energy sources (fossil fuels: oil). Where does the power come from to the electric car factories.

There is hardly a single thing in consumer market that does not contain either oil or burnt oil in its production process or transportation to the place of purchase.

 

My history teacher says that the US is stockpiling oil and then plans to resell it when the world runs out.