Babylon Must Fall!!!!

I dunno how things will turn out, but I do think that society is going more right (take private finance initiatives), and I think that when oil levels fall to a point where the present system can’t continue there will be global recession and the poor will suffer.



Whatever happens I rekon the crop of the future will be hemp. It can be used for so many different things, like fuels (from burning plants as biomass, or from processing hydrocarbons within the plant oils), paper (1 acre of cannabis sativa can produce as much paper as 4 of trees), medicine (from those strains more potent in psychoactive ingredient), textiles etc.



It doesn’t need much fertiliser or pesticides, it puts down deep roots which is good for soil, any parts of the plant not used can be ploughed back into the ground replacing inorganic and organic minerals, nitrates etc. Also industrial hemp strains are generally very low in the part of the cannabis plant that is active (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), so it would be useless to steal and smoke.



Its also great as a food source in a boring soya bean, feed the starving kinda way. The seeds provides a lot of protein, not quite as effectively as soya, but in larger quantities in sources of stong UV-B light (caused by depletion of the ozone layer).



This combined with other renewable energy sources, like wind farms, hydro-electricity and other stuff, could perhaps provide a realistic alternative to fossil fuels. But probably not under a ‘capitalist’ system, it would need a state run (or owned) more left-wing cooperation of industry, due to the monetary costs of such a sceme.



I see a place for business, but only in a system where the interests of the people are put well ahead of that of business, not the other way round.



So there you go my very boring view of the future,



Byeeeeeeeeee

 

I think quite similar to StarFly on this, I don’t see people ever changing the world the way it is at present. Without some global disaster I think we will carry on as normal until we ourselves destroy the o-zone layer and fry us all.

But I happen to believe that such a disaster may not be too distant an event. It’s not a far cry from praying for the return of Jesus, but there is at least definitive proof that this has happened before and probably will again…

Apparently, the Amazon rainforest has almost completely stopped releasing oxygen into the atmosphere. Plants aren’t dying at the rate they should and instead just becoming bigger and stronger with this carbon build-up. It’s impossible for this to continue and some predict there will be a mass release of oxygen heating the planet to the point where seas will boil and ice caps melt.

Now, that will see off a few billion surely. It’s only after something like that I think people will get their shit together. At first capitalism would have to take a back seat to plain old survival. There would be more unity after such a catastrophe and we’d most likely trade instead of thinking about making a buck.

Then hopefully once back on our feet a little we’d of realised the more important things in life and focus on keeping and protecting our planet.

It’s not an ideal plan! Killing 3 billion people never is. But going back- to-basics with all that we know about science, technology and the past would surely aid the survivors in at least creating a less polluted environment. Otherwise I truly believe we're screwed.

 

Ditto. Of course, nuclear fission is incredibly dangerous and produces waste products that we have no effective way to manage. Nuclear cold fusion is a very attractive prospect, but at the moment it's a pipe dream as nobody has managed to produce a cold fusion reaction that can be demonstrated reliably under laboratory testing. Well, unless you believe in conspiracy theories....

Also, a switch to nuclear power of either variety would address our energy needs in some areas, but it would not offer an alternative to the internal combustion engine. Nor would it replace the products which we currently derive from oil.

 

LMAO!!!! Are you seriously suggesting we should all be driving around with nuclear reactors under the bonnet???

Quite aside from the terrifying safety risks of what you suggest and the utter impracticality of the notion, fission grade nuclear material is also a scarcity. It's still a limited non-renewable fuel, and if the world was to switch to nuclear fission as an alternative to fissole fuels, last estimates I saw reckoned we could rely on it for about 20 years.

 

Huh? You're driving round in a car with a radioactive fuel in the engine. Explain to me how this is safe? And explain to me how you plan to refuel? And explain to me how you plan to dispose of spent fuel?

Substantiate that statement please.

 

Taken from discussion document circulated at G4 summit:

Note that this is based on "a large number of new reactors" being built, NOT replacing the whole planet's energy output, or replacing internal combustion, or allowing for economic growth of developing economies.

What the fuck?!? Nuclear materials are extremely dangerous in any quantity! So, you're promoting the mass movement of fission grade material around the country? As well as spent fuel? And again, where are we going to dispose of the waste??? And do you have any evidence of any research that has ever produced a nuclear reaction on a small enough scale with a large enough power-output to run a car?

 

This conversation about cars powered by nuclear fission reactors has had me chuckling away for a few moments, it's ludicrous! Hate to state the obvious, but wouldn't electrically powered cars make a bit more sense? Then you can have a few reactors providing power for millions of cars rather than millions of miniature nuclear reactors driving around the streets and crashing into one another...

 

Yeah, but then you'd miss the pyrotechnics of every motorway pile-up producing a chain reaction

 

Nuclear power provides a small proportion of the world's electricity compared to fossil fuels. It seems obvious that switching entirely to nuclear power is not a sustainable future source, since it relies on mined metals, and these will run out in time just as fossil fuels have. Not to mention the unresolved and expensive problem of dealing with all the extremely dangerous waste material - this is a big enough problem as it is, just imagine it if the amount of nuclear power rises considerably. If we have to switch to electric transport then the demand for electricity will increase considerably too.

Our government has no plans to build a new generation of nuclear reactors anyway, and the ones we currently have will be retiring over the next twenty years. Doesn't it seem likely there's going to be a massive shortfall of energy at some point in this century? What is being done? This is probably our biggest blind spot.

Power from nuclear fusion - possibly, but it's science fiction and may not be possible before this century ends.

 

Not to mention the AA man looking like this:

 

LOL!!!! I can imagine car insurance might become a bit of an issue!

 

and dont 4get plastic, there will be no plastic to make the components needed to make the cars in the 1st place.

 

Yahah, plastics are basically lond chains of carbon atoms with hydrogens coming of them
H H H HH H H H H HH H
| | | | | | | | | | | |
C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C---------- etc
| | | | | | | | | | | |
H H H H H H H H H HH H

OK so that looks shit but you get the picture. So in theory, by process of large scale polymerisation:

Where loadsa | |
-C-C-
| | are joined together.

... plastics should be able to be made from smaller carbon/hydrogen chains.

These are obtainable from oils from things like oilseed rape, in that way more conventional fuels can be made, diesel being the easiest (not in as much quantity as crude oil though).

So technology could have a place if twere used well i guess.