High Tides

[Big and Bashful]

Skip,
They will have to start using other energy sources very soon, at current usage I think they say oil will last 50 years, uranium about the same (Eek!), thorium about three times longer, once they build the right reactors, coal I am not sure but I can remember 300 years being mentioned, what else is there? Oh yes gas, that is only measured in decades as well.

Other energy sources? Well Scotland isn't going to run out of hydro-electric possibilities anytime soon, according to a recent documentary the water flow in Scottish rivers has increased 40% in the last 25 years, no wonder it seems like it never stops raining!

Tides, they ain't going to go out of fashion.

Wind, good when it works, but expensive infrastructure , a lot of money goes into every KW produced.

What else? solar? I can't remember the last time I saw that big glowy spotty thing behind the clouds!

I'm kind of glad I'm not immortal, I can't even imagine a society without energy, or plastics, or any of the precious materials we gig for and mine, they are all distressingly finite and being gobbled up quickly.

Now there's a happy thought train to start a holiday with! Tomorrow I will be burning 300 miles worth of fossil fuels to get to a place with friends and beer, yee and indeed, Har!

[kingfish]

They will have to start using other energy sources very soon, at current usage I think they say oil will last 50 years, uranium about the same (Eek!), thorium about three times longer, once they build the right reactors, coal I am not sure but I can remember 300 years being mentioned, what else is there? Oh yes gas, that is only measured in decades as well.

I'm not convinced on this 50 year until the end of oil business. We may run out of oil that will readily spew from the ground, but there are still reserves trapped in things like shale that we've hardly even started to touch. And there's enough of that there to last another century or so.

Now as for this uranium thing, I'm not only unconvinced but hardly even worried. That "spent uranium" material can, (with some effort) be repeatedly recycled. It theoretically can keep on producing for centuries.

[Big and Bashful]

They will have to start using other energy sources very soon, at current usage I think they say oil will last 50 years, uranium about the same (Eek!), thorium about three times longer, once they build the right reactors, coal I am not sure but I can remember 300 years being mentioned, what else is there? Oh yes gas, that is only measured in decades as well.

I'm not convinced on this 50 year until the end of oil business. We may run out of oil that will readily spew from the ground, but there are still reserves trapped in things like shale that we've hardly even started to touch. And there's enough of that there to last another century or so.

Now as for this uranium thing, I'm not only unconvinced but hardly even worried. That "spent uranium" material can, (with some effort) be repeatedly recycled. It theoretically can keep on producing for centuries.

Yes, these estimates will always change, as currently economical resources are exhausted, prices rises and more difficult resources become viable (Look at oil prices, it must be going up now, even in the USA!).
As for uranium, as resources run down, re-processing will become financially worthwhile, once that happens we will start to use it rather more wisely.

Still, nothing will last forever, the future will eventually look rather different!

[Jack Williams]

As the overpopulation of the planet expanentially burgeons, the scramble for finite resources will become ever more viscious and environmental issues sidelined. Seems the nature of mankind, and hard to imagine a turnaround.
We do have hydro as main supply here. There is plenty of coal Worldwide, but a dirty fuel. Cleaning it up is an ongoing resurch project. Let's hope.

[Since1982]

And it all comes back the the use of water, when a tide goes out it exudes energy. When it comes back in it exudes energy. And that is ALL RE-USABLE ENERGY. You don't have less energy when you're using it in either direction. Realistically, water power can be used ad infinitum. Unlike oil or humans. They wear out.

[kingfish]

And it all comes back the the use of water, when a tide goes out it exudes energy. When it comes back in it exudes energy. And that is ALL RE-USABLE ENERGY. You don't have less energy when you're using it in either direction. Realistically, water power can be used ad infinitum. Unlike oil or humans. They wear out.

Of course the "tree huggers" (or whatever name we label the "environmental group" that will invariably oppose it) will probably complain that doing so will cause the earth's rotation to slow down more quickly, if not that is messing with fish migration or other such nonsense. (thanks to tidal friction, they estimate that our day is actually growing by about 2.3 milliseconds per century)

I just returned from seeing the folks just outside of Amarillo, and heard about some group of environmentalists that are acutally complaining about the wind farms that are being put up, claiming that they are causing emotional distress to the livestock the farmers are grazing around them.

There isn't something so good that there isn't someone out there who is going to hate it.

[zizkov]

We have wind farms around Yorkshire, quite big ones in these parts and the usual objections, I love the rhythm the blades set up. When I drive across Germany some of the highlights are the exquisite wind farms. The Czech Republic is a wind farm free environment and not the better for it. From most angles Temelín or its steam is visible from South Bohemia, and the combination of Russian technology and American control systems imposed on top is not a healthy option. World power politics imposed that, not the more obvious, and tested, French systems. I know some workers at the plant and they worry!

[Since1982]

they estimate that our day is actually growing by about 2.3 milliseconds per century)

I "think" I'll personally not worry too much about the future of the world in milliseconds. That's "how" many milliseconds from my current age of 69 to the promise the Christian Bible gives us of "3 score and 10" years for a "full" life. 3/8/11 to 11/1/11, I wonder is how many milliseconds exactly? WoW...It sure doesn't seem like 4 mo. 8 days since you all were wishing me a happy Nov.1-2010 B-day.

[Kirbstone]

As for milliseconds being added to the Day, There aren't enough hours in the Day as it is! Aiming at that magical Three Score & Ten, I'm hard on your heels, Skip.