Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
This isn't really the place for this discussion, but how do you juxtapose our reliance on oil for its chemical uses? In other words, sure we can run cars and houses on solar power, or compressed gas, but look around you. Almost everything you see and probably whatever you're looking at this on is made of petroleum products or by-products. Even a lot of what we eat these days has to be factored in. In theory this "stop using oil" message sounds amazing, but like a wise man once said on TV "Communism works...in theory!"
|
Agreed, kind of the wrong forum.
I don't think I was advocating that there will be some switch that goes off, or that it will be completely eliminated. But A time will come sooner than allot of Albertans think, but much further than allot of BCers think, were oil is not a mega industry.
I think things are starting to develop where Solar or Wind generation are actually fiscally responsible ideas, and they have allot more room to grow. So when I talk about post-oil I guess I mean a point in time where Oil Production alone is not enough to drive an economy the size of Alberta. Like I said Storage is a bigger problem than generation, but we are starting to see the innovations, now we just need the industrialization of those innovations (that's what the Tesla factory is about).
In Terms of Chemicals or Plastics, I think Live organic options will slowly over take mining/drilling options, but may never replace it. Look at something like paint, you couldn't make paint without oil 30-40 years ago. Now the majority of the home market uses water based with plant oils rather than petroleum. Organic Bio Plastics from contemporary plants exist, and may be cheaper than petro based plastics one day. I'm not in any of these industries so I am mostly a casual observer, but it's easy to see that change is starting to happen faster and faster.