[N_Fiddledog]

SprCForr wrote:

It's impossible to go deeper than 2 km.

Al Gore says so.

According to Gore it's 2 million degrees down there. Seriously. I'm not exaggerating. He actually said that.

[SprCForr]

I thought it was "several", but anyway it's real hot.

Apparently it's also only going to provide us with a 35,000 yr energy reserve for the US. I guess after that the earth's core will be expended in that area.

Maybe we need to get some legislation in place to prevent the US from siphoning off our part of the ball of lava.

[N_Fiddledog]

Pardon me, SPrC, that's correct.

Here's the exact details.

[KorbenDeck]

Of all the things that will kill off humans, I believe global warming in near the bottom.

Global warming is bad yes, but nuclear war or bio-war are worse.

Plus with the huge shift of power in the world from West to East, the cultural decline of western cultures and the pending collapse of the USA, another large armed conflict is very likely.

[Zipperfish]

I think we need to get the gene pool off the planet. Start mining other planets and gettiung energy from the sun from satellites.

[KorbenDeck]

Zipperfish wrote:

I think we need to get the gene pool off the planet. Start mining other planets and gettiung energy from the sun from satellites.

Or at lest find a cost effective way of getting our waste off of earth.... A REALLY big gun that can launch projectiles towards the sun, perfect for getting rid of nuclear waste

[Zipperfish]

KorbenDeck wrote:

Zipperfish wrote:

I think we need to get the gene pool off the planet. Start mining other planets and gettiung energy from the sun from satellites.

Or at lest find a cost effective way of getting our waste off of earth.... A REALLY big gun that can launch projectiles towards the sun, perfect for getting rid of nuclear waste

The problem with dumping nuclear waste to space is the risk of your container cracking up in the upper atmospehre, in which case you could effectively irradiate the planet (at relatively low levels, but for a really long time).

I like the space elevator idea myself, but we may be a ways from getting off the ground on that one.

[raydan]

Typical, we have a problem so we bury it or shoot it off somewhere.
I can't believe that we can't find a way to recycle it and use it to our advantage.

[bootlegga]

BartSimpson wrote:

bootlegga wrote:

BartSimpson wrote:

We're not running out of oil anytime soon.

http://climateresearchnews.com/2009/09/ ... s-forever/

It ain't a matter of running out, it's a matter of supply and demand. If the world DEMAND is 50 million barrels a day, and we can only produce 45 million, where do you think the price goes? UP...

Yes, there is still plenty of oil, but unfortunately, countries that once exported oil (like China) have now become big importers themselves. Other major deposits (like the North Sea) are prodcuing less and less. Companies now tout 'big' oil finds like 10 billion barrels off the ocast of Brazil, when in the heyday of discoveries, that wouldn't rate a mention on the last page of the newspaper.

I highly recommend "Why your world is about to get a whole lot smaller" by Jeff Rubin. It'll change the way you look at carbon taxes, oil prices and the cost of globalization.

Note the correction.

Read the article. With huge supplies of oil deep in the earth all that matters is the technology to extract it. When shallow supplies dry up, as they did in Pennsylvania, the technology to extract oil from deeper sources (as in Texas and offshore) will be developed. Right now there's no compelling reason to drill 10km down when there's plenty of oil 1km down.

I agree there is plenty of oil, but what will it cost to get oil from 10 km down? There’s a reason oil companies drill to a km and stop. It costs a shitload to go deeper.

The problem isn’t oil supply, it’s CHEAP oil supply. We’ve run through most of the cheap oil in the world and if we want what’s left, it’s going to leave a mark on our economies. With all the cheap stuff running out, producers are having to drill in marginal fields or deal with extreme environments (like the oil sands) to find oil to keep our economies running. Want oil from the Arctic? We can do it, but given the lack of transportation infrastructure up there, it ain’t going to be cheap, which is one big reason why the Arctic isn’t dotted with oil wells/offshore platforms.

It’s just like the oilsands. The technology to refine tar sand has been around since the 1960s, but the cost was so much higher than the price of oil, it wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t until oil jumped over $30 a barrel that that the resource began to really be developed. Same goes for oil 10 km down.

Given that there weren’t any announcements of such deep well drilling at $147/barrel, I’m scared as to what the costs are. $250? $500?

BTW, daily consumption is closer to 80 million barrels a day, not 50 (that’s what it was back in the 80s).

[Canadian_Mind]

Well, oil wasn't up above 150 for a very long time, so I doubt anybody had any plans in the work they could start right away. Even if they did, I bet they wanted to wait to see how long the jump would last...

And why start developing a more expensive method of extraction when there is still a resource left to extract cheaply. more profit.

[bootlegga]

That's just it, there isn't cheaper resources to extract. Everything that's cheap is already producing full bore, with little room to grow production.

That's why companies are developing offshore oil wells and Arctic Reserves. There are no CHEAP oil sources left. All that's left are expensive, energy intensive operations like the oil sands in Alberta and Venezuela.

Back in the 70s/80s, cheap oil was $10-$15 per barrel. It hasn't been that low in a long time, and unless a company can cheaply extract oil from one of Bart's 10km deep wells (say for $3-$5 a barrel - about what the Sauids pay for a barrel from Ghawar), it will NEVER be that low again. Well, it might, after we switch from an oil based economy to something else (don't ask me what that is because I don't know either). Nowadays, 'cheap oil' is $40 or $50 a barrel, and most of that increase can't be blamed on inflation.

If you thought $147 barrel/oil was expensive, wait until the economy rebounds. Once economies ramp back up and oil consumption returns to 2007 levels worldwide, it'll be higher. Hell, it's already floating in the $75 dollar range, and the economy is in rather poor shape. I don't know how exactly long that will take, but it will go above $150/barrel in the not too near future.