Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 11:33 am
it is all about solar power and the hydrogen fuel cell. some serious R&D needs to be invested into this instead of firing thousands of rockets into rocks in afghanistan and IRaq.
Depends on how quickly any of this happens though. As it is, the UK's become heavily reliant on agriculture imported from elsewhere and has let it's own farming industry slip considerably. Even in the areas that are agricultural they are often quite remote from where the people live. Local in this case might mean 300 miles or so (or more if you figure out the food miles side of things, farm to depot, depot to shop, shop to purchaser).Mr Hyde wrote:Peak oil wasn't really the point, other than the fact that it will run out and become un-economicly vialble at which point your food that's been transported half way around the world will be more expensive than the locally grown things, cars too expensive to run so use of alternatives naturally happens etc.
I'm pretty certain that most of the money going into researching renewable power is coming from the oil industry anyway, and that they'll probably not roll that out until they've finished making money off the high oil prices. I think if you do some investigating you'll find that plenty of energy efficient cars and renewable power sources have had the patents bought out and then never used, just so they could continue making money.*Grand* wrote:well what do you think... a clean and reknewable way of creating energy... that would put the oill barons out of action.... and change the balance of power in the world today...
i would try to keep it down.
i am actually well aware. there was this firm in india that developed a fuel that ran of the chemical composition of the oil these leaves produced. it burned cleaner and could easily be cultivated. this oil firm bought the patent on the way this was processed and that was that.Shonky wrote:I'm pretty certain that most of the money going into researching renewable power is coming from the oil industry anyway, and that they'll probably not roll that out until they've finished making money off the high oil prices. I think if you do some investigating you'll find that plenty of energy efficient cars and renewable power sources have had the patents bought out and then never used, just so they could continue making money.*Grand* wrote:well what do you think... a clean and reknewable way of creating energy... that would put the oill barons out of action.... and change the balance of power in the world today...
i would try to keep it down.
Great capitalists = shit humans
You need money to develop it, which would mean you'd either need to be ridiculously rich or get the approval of investment bankers, who would then obviously take a share of it. As most investment bankers figure profits above ethics there's nothing to stop them selling their share on to the highest bidder. If you were in the position to buy out your competition and keep your profits high, I imagine most businesses would.Mr Hyde wrote: Havn't heard of that one and sure there might be cover ups....but if I developed a fuel more efficient than oil there is no way I'd be selling the patent on...could surely make yourself the richest person on the planet developing it yourself?
way the world works.Shonky wrote:You need money to develop it, which would mean you'd either need to be ridiculously rich or get the approval of investment bankers, who would then obviously take a share of it. As most investment bankers figure profits above ethics there's nothing to stop them selling their share on to the highest bidder. If you were in the position to buy out your competition and keep your profits high, I imagine most businesses would.Mr Hyde wrote: Havn't heard of that one and sure there might be cover ups....but if I developed a fuel more efficient than oil there is no way I'd be selling the patent on...could surely make yourself the richest person on the planet developing it yourself?
They're also responsible for the price hike in certain foods too as more land is turned over to biodiesel crops. From what I can remember it would take a landmass twice the size of the UK devoted solely to growing plants for biodiesel purely to power "green" cars (assuming the UK continues to use fuel at the same rate). It isn't viable unless consumption is reduced drastically.forensix (mcr) wrote:Biofuels actually produce more carbon than fossil fuels - including the production and transport. They disguise them as being green so people will latch on to them because being green is "cool"
Most 'Green' options are like this... recycled paper causes more waste than just using new growth forests, recycling plastics creates more inferior plastics and uses more energy than just processing more oil for plastics, etc. Its a shame because it makes the viable 'green' options seem like a waste too, like wind, solar and water power.forensix (mcr) wrote:Biofuels actually produce more carbon than fossil fuels - including the production and transport. They disguise them as being green so people will latch on to them because being green is "cool"
There is one bio fuel which is slightly better for the environment - Brazilian Sugar Cane fuel - it doesn't take a lot of brains to work out what would be chopped down to make way for fields of this - again increasing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere and causing more problems in the long run.Shonky wrote:They're also responsible for the price hike in certain foods too as more land is turned over to biodiesel crops. From what I can remember it would take a landmass twice the size of the UK devoted solely to growing plants for biodiesel purely to power "green" cars (assuming the UK continues to use fuel at the same rate). It isn't viable unless consumption is reduced drastically.forensix (mcr) wrote:Biofuels actually produce more carbon than fossil fuels - including the production and transport. They disguise them as being green so people will latch on to them because being green is "cool"
No it isn't. It's the way that a tiny amount of the population who are greedy, short-sighted sociopaths work.*Grand* wrote:way the world works.Shonky wrote:You need money to develop it, which would mean you'd either need to be ridiculously rich or get the approval of investment bankers, who would then obviously take a share of it. As most investment bankers figure profits above ethics there's nothing to stop them selling their share on to the highest bidder. If you were in the position to buy out your competition and keep your profits high, I imagine most businesses would.Mr Hyde wrote: Havn't heard of that one and sure there might be cover ups....but if I developed a fuel more efficient than oil there is no way I'd be selling the patent on...could surely make yourself the richest person on the planet developing it yourself?
you can buy minced beef for 99p can of coke for 50p some potatoes 30p and a bun for 20p*Grand* wrote:yeah pain in the arse at the price of staple food products like wheat and maize.. and the hike in the price of animal feed... which then causes an increase in the price of milk and meat.. and so forth and so forth.. you wait when an extra value meal cost £3.99. mc donalds is a good what ever the word is, in terms of the relative price of food.