It has of course been closely established that increasing fuel costs have large effects on agronomics, and these changes can be seen by all of us on our trips through the supermarket.
But is the ethanol solution really workable? As yet no method has been found to make the process of creating ethanol economically viable; at some point the question must be asked, when will we see more than pipe dreams and optimistic projections?
I would say an ideal renewable energy source of the future would be some sort of biodiesel (of which I'm not sure, obviously sugarcane is much more effecient then corn., although there are even more efficient things, such as algaes, it we could find a way to harness that at such a large scale.)combined with fusion.
Algae is a promising field of study, but the holy grail of renewable energy is, of course, cold fusion. If we can find a way to unleash the energy contained within, say, an ounce of seawater - which isn't as science-fiction as it's sometimes made out to be - we could power the world forever.
Sugarcane ethanol production is on the verge of economic viability. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002339093_brazilfuel17.html As gas prices continue to rise and ethanol production becomes more widely used (bigger equipement, sugar prices artificically controlled) it's not unreasonable that this could be effecient enough to be a substitution for gasoline.
Well stable fusion is. Cold fusions impossible. Heard of Iter? It means 'the way' in latin. Just like Lode. http://www.iter.org/
i think once we can achieve antimatter production from our current microgram a year, then we will be able to harness 510,000 eV per particle...but first we muct get past the little things such as antimatter containment failure and catastrophic MARA breach...
I was reading this book about energy production of the future, and the author said there was approximately enough Deuterium in the oceans to power the electricity of ten billion people for several trillions of years.
Here's the main thing that I worry about, with all these proposed sources of bio-friendly energy: you know CFC's? When they were introduced in the...I think 1960's or so, they were this wonder chemical that could fix practically anything. They could clean! They could run your fridge! They fight fire! And it wasn't until much later that we realized they're destroying the ozone layer and have a half life of like a century. We're not always sure what the impact of a new technology might be; it might look great, but have a hidden downside. Did you know that when cars were introduced, they were hailed as environmentally friendly? Horses shat all over the place, and their clopping made a lot of noise pollution. Cars were great! I'm not saying we shouldn't pursue alternative energy sources, of course; but it would be a mistake to put all our eggs in that basket. We have to adjust our consumption at the same time as we research new techs.
The cost it takes seems at this point well beyond reach for any kind of energy production. Don't go all star trek on my Jer.
this is true... have you ever heard of richard dyson? basically he theorized that a civilization could build a shell around the sun 1 AU in diameter...in the habitable zone...on the inside is where that civilization would live and unlimited energy for the life of the star in question...a very fascinating idea...
Well I'm just saying that it's my bet, I'm not suggesting that all funding should go to ITER and ITER alone. And I promise you, our energy consumption will always increase as long as our society doesn't start decaying. Which could be any day now.