This is a continuation of Funk's topic before the Pav crashed. Anyone feeling the pinch of these gas prices yet?
It's up to $2.60 here in the center of America's asscrack for regular(St. Louis on the Mississippi River). and it's going to keep going up and up. Adjusted for inflation, gas prices peaked in the early 1980s at about $3.05/gallon in today's dollars, and crude oil also peaked at about $90 adjusted for inflation in 1980. We are very close to that, about $2.60/gallon average in the U.S. for regular and nearly $70/barrel for crude.
I'm currently building an electric car so that I can end my contribution to the killing of people in the middle east with my 100 mile a week gas habit(when college is in session, anyway). With my dad not able to work, and myself without a job and still unable to find one, these gas prices could be very bad for me. It's looking like the internet connection will be cancelled at the end of August so my step mom has a little extra grocery money, and when this semester starts, getting around will be difficult. On the plus side(ha...), I may not be attending college anymore since my dad's out of work and all, and my college limits the amount of loans I can take out and stay enrolled, but who knows. If I drop out, I lose my scholarships, so I may stay, somehow. In the meatime, I'll keep looking for a job. These gas prices are going to be very hurtful very fast if I don't find a source of income. My Ford, if driven gently, will get about 25 miles per gallon, but I also need to pay property taxes on it so I no longer have an expired license and expired plates.getting that money is also hard. Gas money will make things worse. My step mom's really feeling the burn since she's a pickup truck woman, and her 2000 Silverado gets about 14 miles per gallon. My Ford's about ready to crap out on me anyway, so I may end up slapping its expired plates onto the Triumph GT6 and getting it road ready if the Ford dies, but at least the Triumph gets good gas mileage!(I'm not even going to bother getting it to pass emissions. I got it long ago to convert to electric, it's a race car, and I'd spend about as much getting it emissions legal with what was a race-prepped TR6 engine as it would take to buy another car) If I have a job when the Ford craps out, I'll be looking into getting either a diesel VW Rabbit and running it on vegetable oil from the local Chinese place, or getting a Geo Metro(Might be slow and ****ty, but I'll have the fast car in the garage to look forward to finishing). Once I finish changing the Triumph to an electric, I will never own a gasoline-powered car again, ever. Once that is electric, I will ditch the Ford or any other vehicle I have at the time.
So how are these gas prices affecting you or going to affect you?
These gas prices won't be going down to any significant degree, if at all. $2.00 a gallon gas is history. We ran out of that this year, and now we'll soon have $3.00/gallon gas, then $5/gal gas, then $8 gas, and so on.
You see, we may have passed peak oil production, the point in which half of all the world's oil has been consumed. This is also considered the point in which production will either slowly decline or plateau for a period and then decline very fast. The peak, predicted by M. King Hubbert, was supposed to occur between 1995 and 2005. He predicted America's oil production peaking in 1972, and was pretty much correct.
You see, peak oil has many nasty implications. Everything we do is linked to oil. It makes fertilizers for our food, powers our cars, makes plastics for our computers and TVs, makes medicines, makes pesticides, makes food preservatives, transports everything we buy, and a wide array of things associated with our society.
As the oil prices rise, inflation too will get out of control. This could lead to an economic collapse, bringing America into a second great depression. Unemployment could become a huge problem(it is already, but the government statistics are quite flawed.).
Peak oil may be the reason why gas prices are rising so rapidly. Supply cannot meet demand anymore.
Can these problems pertaining to peak oil be prevented? Yes. We have the technology to drastically reduce our oil use. Technology for electric cars that can go more than 200 miles per charge and out-perform gasoline cars exists and has existed for nearly 10 years and in mass production would be cost-competitive with the cars today. We can make fertilizers and pesticides from industrial hemp, and also from hemp make plastics, biodiesel, petrochemical equivalents used in medicines, ect. We can power our cars on wind energy by building wind generators and storing that energy produced into batteries. Hemp is a good feedstock for industrial processs in place of oil. Hemp also needs no fertilizers or pesticides to be grown, and has a very high energy return of investment. We can also drastically cut consumption of oil by shrinking our military useage and all the consumption its associated industrial processes entails. We can produce food organically and end wasteful factory farms. We can install mass transit systems to make it so car use in America is not compulsory.
Whatever the case, oil consumption must be curbed and substituted before peak oil's problems set in if we are to maintain anything resembling our current living standard. America is too dependent upon oil, 60% of which is imported. America consumes 25% of all the world's oil produced and only contains 4% of the world's population. Just america's cars alone are the biggest place to increase efficiency; just the fuel for America's automobiles accounts for 45% of America's oil consumption.
But the public good has a conflict of interest with the oil industry and the federal government. You see, with peak oil and the drastically increased prices of oil it entails, comes large profit benefits to the oil industry. They want peak to happen and they want it to entail a crisis because the increased demand will cause the price of oil to rocket. Pre peak, every barrel of oil sold on average went for < $30/barrel, adjusted for inflation to fit today's dollars. Today, oil is near $70/barrel, and post peak, regardless whether or not we passed it already, the average price per barrel sold will be more than $70. We may soon see $100/barrel this winter which would entail $4/gallon gas or higher.
So, we have the technology to make sure these problems don't arise, but we have to implement it before they do happen, or they will be more expensive to implement causing everyone a loss. But, the oil industry lobbied against electric vehicles, and sent its funding to politicians supress their adoption and ran a negative PR campaign against electric car technology, and with the help of the auto industry who didn't want it to become reality, made sure that your money kept flowing to these industries. The petrochemical industry did the same with industrial hemp in the 1930s. DuPont is on record as having paid politicians money for refusing to grant permits to grow industrial hemp since the 'Reefer Madness' period of the depression leading up to WWII. The oil and electric power industry(spercifically the coal, nuclear, and natural gas industries) have repeatedly supressed wind and solar energy, despite wind now being cheaper than coal.
Instead of implementing the already existing and previously viable solutions to these problems, this government currently sees an opportunity to inflate its size by attacking middle eastern countries for their oil. Iraq contain's 12% of the world's proven oil reserves, but the attempt to get to it has been a spectacular failure. But the defense industry likes wars for oil, it will make them lots of money. The oil industry likes exclusive no-bid contracts and government handouts that war entails. The auto industry rather likes ou taking your car in for maintenance all the time because it parts you with your money. The government likes this high consumption because all the subsidies to oil, all the wars, the gas taxes, the car taxes, all generate revenue for its bureaucrats to gawk at and play with. All of this consumption of the world's natural resources is needed for capitalism in its current form to survive, and to maintain economic growth, oil must be used. But unlimited growth in a world of limited resouces is not sustainable. We need a powered-down, closed system economy that doesn't rely on unlimited growth to propsper. This means decentralization, less resource consumption, and less taxes. Both corporations and governments frown on this concept, as it means returning decision making and flow of money to the people instead of the bureacracies. hus prevention of the crises associated with peak oil has been fought tooth and nail, and as a result, we are seeing these gas prices that won't be going down.
Who knows what the future will hold. There doesn't exist much time for change to occur to prevent an economic meltdown. The government, like in WWII, will end up resorting to more infringements upon civil liberties, driving restrictions, and rationing, if things get out of control. Meanwhile, the oil industry will laugh their way to the bank well into the 21st centurs as they did in the 20th, only much more centralized, and much wealthier. Which path, decentralisation and a free republic cincerned about ecological, economic, and social sustainability, or a dictatorship made to maximize revenue and nothing else, at the expense of our civil liberties and livlihoods?
We're about to find out.
It's up to $2.60 here in the center of America's asscrack for regular(St. Louis on the Mississippi River). and it's going to keep going up and up. Adjusted for inflation, gas prices peaked in the early 1980s at about $3.05/gallon in today's dollars, and crude oil also peaked at about $90 adjusted for inflation in 1980. We are very close to that, about $2.60/gallon average in the U.S. for regular and nearly $70/barrel for crude.
I'm currently building an electric car so that I can end my contribution to the killing of people in the middle east with my 100 mile a week gas habit(when college is in session, anyway). With my dad not able to work, and myself without a job and still unable to find one, these gas prices could be very bad for me. It's looking like the internet connection will be cancelled at the end of August so my step mom has a little extra grocery money, and when this semester starts, getting around will be difficult. On the plus side(ha...), I may not be attending college anymore since my dad's out of work and all, and my college limits the amount of loans I can take out and stay enrolled, but who knows. If I drop out, I lose my scholarships, so I may stay, somehow. In the meatime, I'll keep looking for a job. These gas prices are going to be very hurtful very fast if I don't find a source of income. My Ford, if driven gently, will get about 25 miles per gallon, but I also need to pay property taxes on it so I no longer have an expired license and expired plates.getting that money is also hard. Gas money will make things worse. My step mom's really feeling the burn since she's a pickup truck woman, and her 2000 Silverado gets about 14 miles per gallon. My Ford's about ready to crap out on me anyway, so I may end up slapping its expired plates onto the Triumph GT6 and getting it road ready if the Ford dies, but at least the Triumph gets good gas mileage!(I'm not even going to bother getting it to pass emissions. I got it long ago to convert to electric, it's a race car, and I'd spend about as much getting it emissions legal with what was a race-prepped TR6 engine as it would take to buy another car) If I have a job when the Ford craps out, I'll be looking into getting either a diesel VW Rabbit and running it on vegetable oil from the local Chinese place, or getting a Geo Metro(Might be slow and ****ty, but I'll have the fast car in the garage to look forward to finishing). Once I finish changing the Triumph to an electric, I will never own a gasoline-powered car again, ever. Once that is electric, I will ditch the Ford or any other vehicle I have at the time.
So how are these gas prices affecting you or going to affect you?
These gas prices won't be going down to any significant degree, if at all. $2.00 a gallon gas is history. We ran out of that this year, and now we'll soon have $3.00/gallon gas, then $5/gal gas, then $8 gas, and so on.
You see, we may have passed peak oil production, the point in which half of all the world's oil has been consumed. This is also considered the point in which production will either slowly decline or plateau for a period and then decline very fast. The peak, predicted by M. King Hubbert, was supposed to occur between 1995 and 2005. He predicted America's oil production peaking in 1972, and was pretty much correct.
You see, peak oil has many nasty implications. Everything we do is linked to oil. It makes fertilizers for our food, powers our cars, makes plastics for our computers and TVs, makes medicines, makes pesticides, makes food preservatives, transports everything we buy, and a wide array of things associated with our society.
As the oil prices rise, inflation too will get out of control. This could lead to an economic collapse, bringing America into a second great depression. Unemployment could become a huge problem(it is already, but the government statistics are quite flawed.).
Peak oil may be the reason why gas prices are rising so rapidly. Supply cannot meet demand anymore.
Can these problems pertaining to peak oil be prevented? Yes. We have the technology to drastically reduce our oil use. Technology for electric cars that can go more than 200 miles per charge and out-perform gasoline cars exists and has existed for nearly 10 years and in mass production would be cost-competitive with the cars today. We can make fertilizers and pesticides from industrial hemp, and also from hemp make plastics, biodiesel, petrochemical equivalents used in medicines, ect. We can power our cars on wind energy by building wind generators and storing that energy produced into batteries. Hemp is a good feedstock for industrial processs in place of oil. Hemp also needs no fertilizers or pesticides to be grown, and has a very high energy return of investment. We can also drastically cut consumption of oil by shrinking our military useage and all the consumption its associated industrial processes entails. We can produce food organically and end wasteful factory farms. We can install mass transit systems to make it so car use in America is not compulsory.
Whatever the case, oil consumption must be curbed and substituted before peak oil's problems set in if we are to maintain anything resembling our current living standard. America is too dependent upon oil, 60% of which is imported. America consumes 25% of all the world's oil produced and only contains 4% of the world's population. Just america's cars alone are the biggest place to increase efficiency; just the fuel for America's automobiles accounts for 45% of America's oil consumption.
But the public good has a conflict of interest with the oil industry and the federal government. You see, with peak oil and the drastically increased prices of oil it entails, comes large profit benefits to the oil industry. They want peak to happen and they want it to entail a crisis because the increased demand will cause the price of oil to rocket. Pre peak, every barrel of oil sold on average went for < $30/barrel, adjusted for inflation to fit today's dollars. Today, oil is near $70/barrel, and post peak, regardless whether or not we passed it already, the average price per barrel sold will be more than $70. We may soon see $100/barrel this winter which would entail $4/gallon gas or higher.
So, we have the technology to make sure these problems don't arise, but we have to implement it before they do happen, or they will be more expensive to implement causing everyone a loss. But, the oil industry lobbied against electric vehicles, and sent its funding to politicians supress their adoption and ran a negative PR campaign against electric car technology, and with the help of the auto industry who didn't want it to become reality, made sure that your money kept flowing to these industries. The petrochemical industry did the same with industrial hemp in the 1930s. DuPont is on record as having paid politicians money for refusing to grant permits to grow industrial hemp since the 'Reefer Madness' period of the depression leading up to WWII. The oil and electric power industry(spercifically the coal, nuclear, and natural gas industries) have repeatedly supressed wind and solar energy, despite wind now being cheaper than coal.
Instead of implementing the already existing and previously viable solutions to these problems, this government currently sees an opportunity to inflate its size by attacking middle eastern countries for their oil. Iraq contain's 12% of the world's proven oil reserves, but the attempt to get to it has been a spectacular failure. But the defense industry likes wars for oil, it will make them lots of money. The oil industry likes exclusive no-bid contracts and government handouts that war entails. The auto industry rather likes ou taking your car in for maintenance all the time because it parts you with your money. The government likes this high consumption because all the subsidies to oil, all the wars, the gas taxes, the car taxes, all generate revenue for its bureaucrats to gawk at and play with. All of this consumption of the world's natural resources is needed for capitalism in its current form to survive, and to maintain economic growth, oil must be used. But unlimited growth in a world of limited resouces is not sustainable. We need a powered-down, closed system economy that doesn't rely on unlimited growth to propsper. This means decentralization, less resource consumption, and less taxes. Both corporations and governments frown on this concept, as it means returning decision making and flow of money to the people instead of the bureacracies. hus prevention of the crises associated with peak oil has been fought tooth and nail, and as a result, we are seeing these gas prices that won't be going down.
Who knows what the future will hold. There doesn't exist much time for change to occur to prevent an economic meltdown. The government, like in WWII, will end up resorting to more infringements upon civil liberties, driving restrictions, and rationing, if things get out of control. Meanwhile, the oil industry will laugh their way to the bank well into the 21st centurs as they did in the 20th, only much more centralized, and much wealthier. Which path, decentralisation and a free republic cincerned about ecological, economic, and social sustainability, or a dictatorship made to maximize revenue and nothing else, at the expense of our civil liberties and livlihoods?
We're about to find out.
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