Things to ponder with concern regarding the future

[Brianbrewed]

To be honest I am not an economist so it's a bit outside my pay grade. This guy is however.

https://play.acast.com/s/20b97d01-ba9b-5fb0-9acf-161391a88cb0/fb070671-e21a-4598-8bfc-9fddb3cc7dfe
He is worth a listen, he makes economics understandable for gobshites like me

 

[Argentum]

Here's one to think about. Chris Martenson, whom I believe (subject to correction) was once a vice president of the Pfizer Corporation, once pondered "What if every advancement of society and humanity as we know it today has merely been an artifact of what is seemingly an over-abundance (or massive surplus, or tailwind) of cheap energy?"

I.E., what happens when some day the world faces a (headwind like) deficit of energy as opposed to an amazing over-abundance of it? How will fabricating money 'at will' solve things if/when we reach that juncture?

 

[Argentum]

Additional to the above, when fossil fuels are banned and the "civilized" world resorts to 100% renewable energy I believe we will often be faced with a headwind of energy outages, deficits, and soaring energy costs. Texas showed us this past winter that many will suffer and some will even die under any such mass scale energy headwind scenario.

 

[Argentum]

Another one to ponder: The hydrogen fuel cell, and/or direct fueling with hydrogen. Hydrogen is one of the most scarce (if not factually the very most scarce) 'natural' commodities residing on or within this Earth or it's atmosphere, and making it (via dissociating water into hydrogen and oxygen) requires vastly more energy as input than can ever be recovered as output. It is a poster child for ERoEI. Of all things, how did hydrogen get chosen as a means to meet future energy demands?

 

[VW911]

I absolutely LOVE petrol (and curry)...


...I'll get my coat.

 

[Argentum]

An even worse and more sad ERoEI joke upon humanity is 'Compressed Air' powered vehicles.

 

[Argentum]

A pet peeve of mine is when Petrol refining companies Flare off all of their unmarketable distillation fractions durring fractional distillation refining. Those endless flare torches likely represent multiple billions to trillions of annual BTU's that could potentially be (or could possibly have been) turned into steam which could be turned into electricity KW's. Such flares are a prime example of a massive cheap energy tailwind.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I absolutely LOVE petrol

I prefer Meths

 

[simon12]

An even worse and more sad ERoEI joke upon humanity is 'Compressed Air' powered vehicles.

Compressed CO2 would be much better, it compresses far better than air

 

[johnny108]

We already have power outages in California, because we’re trying to be “green”. It has killed a few elderly, already, due to the heat.

 

[Argentum]

Talk about a massive cheap energy tailwind. Here in the States 4 x 1 Liter bottles of spring water or bottled RO drinking water will more often than not cost more than a US gallon of Petrol. Petrol is presently averaging ~$3.00 US per US Gallon (= 3.785 Liters) around where I live. And a refrigerated Liter of drinking water can cost up to a Dollar or more.

When Petrol costs well less than bottled water, something seems oddly strange.

 

[johnny108]

Right now, coca-cola is cheaper than water.
Curiouser and curiouser

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Right now, coca-cola is cheaper than water.
Curiouser and curiouser

Years ago on holiday in Turkey bottled Beer was cheaper than bottled water