Decius wrote: ] 1. You writings on this subject have caused me to pay closer
] attention to it. Really good to hear, thanks for sharing your thoughts. On the same note, the discussion has been making me rethink some of my positions on the issue and look deeper for answers. I see this as extremely encouraging. We are all bright enough to work on this problem and start coming up with good solutions. ] 3. I went and researched some other fossil fuels. The US has
] enough natural gas to provide its own supply for 70 years at
] the current rate of consumption, Where did you read this? I refer you to this study: http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=119&contentId=2004165 This is BP's Statistical Review of US Energy, 2003. There is a PDF available. It's really easy to get it, just hit BP's website and search for "statistical review" 2004's probably won't be available for some time. BP has done an excellent job with their data layout. Quoting from the section on natural gas, these are US stats: --------------- At the end of 2002: Proved Reserves: 5.19 trillion cubic metres
Production: 547.7 billion cubic metres
Consumption: 667.5 billion cubic metres
R/P Ratio: 9.6 Glossary: Proved Reserves: Generally taken to be those quantities that geological and engineering information indicates with reasonable certainty can be recovered in the future from known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions. Reserves/Production (R/P) Ratio: If the reserves remaining at the end of the year are divided by the production in that year, the result is the length of time that those remaining reserves would last if production were to continue at that level. --------------- That gives the US about 10 years of natural gas. Also from the study's forward: "On the gas production side, North America was the only region to see a decline. A price-driven drop in drilling activity following the boom of 2001 explains some of the decrease, but the maturity of the USA and Canada from a resource perspective also seems a contributing factor." You may be asking yourself, given the number above, "Where are we making up the 100 billion cubic metres difference between production and consumption?" The answer: Canada. We imported 108.8 bcm from them in 2002. Guess what Canada's R/P ratio is? 9.3 years. See why having gas fired electric plants account for 90% of all new electric plant growth is short sighted? They are counting on the LNG infrastructure to be in place by then. I need to locate an article I found about the logistics of LNG, but to give you an idea of what is in place today, the US has four LNG terminals. The numbers weren't encouraging from what I rememeber. ] that power without fossil fuels. Its a problem we have to
] solve, but not one we have to solve within a couple of
] decades. See above. It is upon us my friend, if studies like these are to be believed. ] 7. Newsgateway.ca mostly consists of peak oil discussions and
] various 9/11 conspiracy theories, including articles like
] "Consider 20 parallels between the USA today and Hitlers
] Germany." Its about as fair and balanced as fox news. Debating
] this in detail is really beside the point. Agreed. I actually found it doing Google searches for things like "peak oil is a sham" "peak oil is a farce" etc. Just trying to find opinions on the other side. The page I meme'd was the first page I had ever seen on that site. I liked all of the points that were discussed, mainly because Heinberg's book was something that I was reading at the time and he was quoted quite heavily on the page. Easier than me typing it all in from the book. RE: As prices rise, concerns grow about world oil supplies | 
