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(London Times) Unlikely China's thirst for oil will save the planet   (business.timesonline.co.uk) divider line 120
More: Unlikely  
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SphericalTime [TotalFark] 2008-07-05 08:31:54 PM  
If it doesn't destroy it first, you mean.

 
TeddyRooseveltsMustache [TotalFark] 2008-07-05 09:06:43 PM  
I dunno Subby, that tea stuff they've been drinking for centuries seems to be pretty popular. I don't see oil replacing it in China's restaurants and supermarkets.

 
oldweevil 2008-07-05 09:08:00 PM  
SphericalTime:If it doesn't destroy it first, you mean.

We're doing that just fine ourselves.

 
Bucky Katt [TotalFark] 2008-07-05 09:12:42 PM  
a new bubble. this one will be in green technology.

Link (new window)

 
KerwoodDerby 2008-07-05 09:13:09 PM  
Those in the energy biz ruefully agree that the problem with global energy resources isn't that there's not enough oil, it's that there's too much oil, which discourages any attempt to pursue alternatives. The consequent joke is that the most progressive policy is to burn as much oil as quickly as possible.

/oh, yeah, there's that CO2 thing...
//well, it was only a wry joke

 
Descartes 2008-07-05 09:13:21 PM  
China's thirst for oil will save the planet by throwing the poor under the bus.

 
destrip 2008-07-05 09:14:06 PM  
Dear World,

We told you so.


Peace and Love,

Tree-Huggers, Whale-Savers, Prius Drivers, and Others Formerly Known as the Wackos of the Environmental Left

 
hockey fool 2008-07-05 09:14:22 PM  
plant-powered cars?

 
Kniggit 2008-07-05 09:14:54 PM  
I gotta love these idiots who claim wild oil prices. $250 by Gazprom, $500 by that "guru" Robert Hirsch.

Sadly, none of these morons truly understands the macroeconomic implications of oil this high. However, let me enumerate them for everyone: all commerce as we know it will stop!

When every car owner and freight truck driver stops driving, when nearly every auto maker has gone bankrupt, and the scope of motorized vehicle manufacture gets so small that millions are out of work, and when they can no longer buy already expensive discretionary items due to transportation costs, and when all ship-based world trade becomes prohibitively expensive and essentially ceases...

Well, then, demand for oil will drop through the floor. And economics, being an embodiment of natural laws, will absolutely crush the price due to demand crash.

Welcome to the third and hopefully last of the bubbles, the commodity bubble. It will be viewed historically in the same light as the other two great bubbles, the stock and housing bubbles. This one promises to be catastrophic at the end of the day, with only the middlemen and speculators profiting and siphoning the world's wealth out in one fell swoop and escaping to non-extradition countries.

 
Hollie Maea 2008-07-05 09:15:21 PM  
I stopped reading after the part where they talked about using CO2 as an energy source.

 
Third Day Mark 2008-07-05 09:15:39 PM  
I don't know if I enjoy life as much here on Bizzaro Earth as I do on regular Earth.

 
ubertwit 2008-07-05 09:16:27 PM  
hey china, you'll always be behind the US. Go ahead and keep creating your acid rain trying to catch up, jerkoffs.

/patience not a virtue I suppose
//what would cain say

 
GonzoNihilist 2008-07-05 09:16:35 PM  
What, no Irony tag?

 
Haireola 2008-07-05 09:17:26 PM  
I been sayin' it! I been sayin' it for 10 damn years! Ain't I been sayin' it, Miguel?

And we ain't got no burrito coverins.

 
brynaldo 2008-07-05 09:18:06 PM  
Kniggit:I gotta love these idiots who claim wild oil prices. $250 by Gazprom, $500 by that "guru" Robert Hirsch.

Sadly, none of these morons truly understands the macroeconomic implications of oil this high. However, let me enumerate them for everyone: all commerce as we know it will stop!

When every car owner and freight truck driver stops driving, when nearly every auto maker has gone bankrupt, and the scope of motorized vehicle manufacture gets so small that millions are out of work, and when they can no longer buy already expensive discretionary items due to transportation costs, and when all ship-based world trade becomes prohibitively expensive and essentially ceases...

Well, then, demand for oil will drop through the floor. And economics, being an embodiment of natural laws, will absolutely crush the price due to demand crash.

Welcome to the third and hopefully last of the bubbles, the commodity bubble. It will be viewed historically in the same light as the other two great bubbles, the stock and housing bubbles. This one promises to be catastrophic at the end of the day, with only the middlemen and speculators profiting and siphoning the world's wealth out in one fell swoop and escaping to non-extradition countries.


I will save this quote for next summer.

 
Party Boy [TotalFark] 2008-07-05 09:18:29 PM  
Bucky Katt:a new bubble. this one will be in green technology.

Link (new window)


thanks for that

 
kilgorn 2008-07-05 09:18:37 PM  
What does this have to do with the price of tea in China?!?

/zing

 
Party Boy [TotalFark] 2008-07-05 09:20:10 PM  
brynaldo:I will save this quote for next summer.

I hope you don't mind If I really, really hope you're wrong.

/maybe you can take your bicycle over to where I am and rub it in my face when you're right.

 
Third Day Mark 2008-07-05 09:20:19 PM  
Kniggit:I gotta love these idiots who claim wild oil prices. $250 by Gazprom, $500 by that "guru" Robert Hirsch.

Sadly, none of these morons truly understands the macroeconomic implications of oil this high. However, let me enumerate them for everyone: all commerce as we know it will stop!


Yeah... didn't they say that at $100-bbl oil? And $120? $130? $140? Maybe the magic number is $159. Who knows. The claims that the economy as we know it would cease to function at those price levels are just as outrageous as the predictions themselves. Oil will be whatever the fark it wants to be, and we're still going to use it. We can't stop sucking that big, veiny, throbbing c*ck that is light sweet crude.

/gotta go take a shower now... i feel dirty for just typing that.

 
wookiemonster 2008-07-05 09:20:33 PM  
I like how some asshole "analyst" is predicting oil will hit $500 a barrel in 3 or so years. $500? Really? If that would happen, or anything near that, it would pretty much be the end of the world as we know it. Oil was $50 a barrel in 2005. How in the fark did demand increase to the point where the price is projected to be $250 by the end of the year?!

 
nimbers 2008-07-05 09:21:30 PM  
Bucky Katt:a new bubble. this one will be in green technology.


If it drives research in renewable energy, I'm all for a green technology bubble. Unlike the dotcom and housing bubble, green tech has long-term rewards besides perceived wealth.

 
brynaldo 2008-07-05 09:21:47 PM  
Party Boy:brynaldo:I will save this quote for next summer.

I hope you don't mind If I really, really hope you're wrong.

/maybe you can take your bicycle over to where I am and rub it in my face when you're right.


My feelings are the same, I have a V8

 
Ishidan [TotalFark] 2008-07-05 09:22:23 PM  
Kniggit 2008-07-05 09:14:54 PM
This one promises to be catastrophic at the end of the day, with only the middlemen and speculators profiting and siphoning the world's wealth out in one fell swoop and escaping to non-extradition countries.

Then only those mobile enough to scavenge, brutal enough to pillage will survive. Ready to wage war for a tank of juice.

 
fireclown 2008-07-05 09:24:06 PM  
It'll force the ROW to get off our collective backsides on renewable energy, that's for damned sure.

 
Party Boy [TotalFark] 2008-07-05 09:24:28 PM  
brynaldo:My feelings are the same, I have a V8

meh. depends on what its on, how its built. There's i4's and v6's that get shiat master mileage, while vettes can get 30's

 
brynaldo 2008-07-05 09:26:29 PM  
Party Boy:brynaldo:My feelings are the same, I have a V8

meh. depends on what its on, how its built. There's i4's and v6's that get shiat master mileage, while vettes can get 30's


5.2L (318ci) Grand Cherokee, not bad, not great. Long term avg 17mpg

 
CygnusDarius [TotalFark] 2008-07-05 09:26:32 PM  
This is gonna sound extreme, but here's what is going to happen in the next 20-30 years, or at least what I think it'll happen:

The oil crisis is gonna force us to go into bio-fuel and alternative fuel, but that's gonna spark a heavier food crisis. Massive immigration of people coming from the poor parts of asia, the middle east and africe will flood europe, the american continent, and pretty much the majority of the first world nations and then some. There's gonna be so much demand for citenship on these countries that it will take years to accept even the half, which then the immigration beaurocracies will snap and put the thing in halt. This will cause massive illegal immigration, riots, and the army will have to be deployed, and this chaos will be taken as an oportunity for criminals to go into all kinds of shennaningans, and dictatorships will be formed.

There'll be lots of chaos, countries will collapse due to the riots, and the food will become so scarse people will start killing for food (whether from food storage to downright cannibalism) and the power will be shifted to countries no one suspected that could become that powerful (Cuba, for example), but it'll be too late, because there is not enough order to actually amend these mistakes, so what we'll get is a very, very farked up world.

/Or something like that
//Yes, I'm a little bored right now

 
Mosey 2008-07-05 09:27:07 PM  
random prediction:

Within the next 2 years there is a product out that costs about $500 for your mechanic to install which will lower gas prices in half.

Not sure what it is, corn/oil fuel adapter, some widget that bypasses some fuel intensive part of the engine, automatic hybrid car maker, whatever...

It will take two to five more years before enough people have it or auto manufacturers install it, but the product will exist (if it doesn't already).

 
DO NOT WANT Poster Girl [recently expired TotalFark] 2008-07-05 09:27:11 PM  
From the article -- opening premise is bogus. CO2 is the most oxidized form of carbon. Getting that out of the atmosphere and into a form for energy is called photosynthesis. That's about as efficient as it can get. Shenanigans anyway.

 
Hollie Maea 2008-07-05 09:27:13 PM  
wookiemonster:How in the fark did demand increase to the point where the price is projected to be $250 by the end of the year?!


It didn't.

Hint: more than just supply and demand have pushed up the prices.

 
xCh 2008-07-05 09:27:55 PM  
Hollie Maea
I stopped reading too - the fuel source isn't CO2, but rather hot air...

 
brynaldo 2008-07-05 09:28:56 PM  
CygnusDarius:This is gonna sound extreme, but here's what is going to happen in the next 20-30 years, or at least what I think it'll happen:

The oil crisis is gonna force us to go into bio-fuel and alternative fuel, but that's gonna spark a heavier food crisis. Massive immigration of people coming from the poor parts of asia, the middle east and africe will flood europe, the american continent, and pretty much the majority of the first world nations and then some. There's gonna be so much demand for citenship on these countries that it will take years to accept even the half, which then the immigration beaurocracies will snap and put the thing in halt. This will cause massive illegal immigration, riots, and the army will have to be deployed, and this chaos will be taken as an oportunity for criminals to go into all kinds of shennaningans, and dictatorships will be formed.

There'll be lots of chaos, countries will collapse due to the riots, and the food will become so scarse people will start killing for food (whether from food storage to downright cannibalism) and the power will be shifted to countries no one suspected that could become that powerful (Cuba, for example), but it'll be too late, because there is not enough order to actually amend these mistakes, so what we'll get is a very, very farked up world.

/Or something like that
//Yes, I'm a little bored right now


Something like that. Lets not forget crop failure form climate change!

 
EnderX 2008-07-05 09:29:03 PM  
Time to go short on GM I guess.

 
Hollie Maea 2008-07-05 09:30:52 PM  
xCh:Hollie Maea
I stopped reading too - the fuel source isn't CO2, but rather hot air...


I always love it when people talk about coming up with a car that "runs on water". Isn't it in Chemistry class junior year of high school that you learn why that won't work?

 
Party Boy [TotalFark] 2008-07-05 09:31:32 PM  
brynaldo:5.2L (318ci) Grand Cherokee, not bad, not great. Long term avg 17mpg

this thread is better suited for Semi trucks, garbage trucks, busses, etc., but I'll post it here too

Doing the MPG math or how replacing a 12 MPG car with a 14 MPG car saves more gas than replacing a 28 MPG car with a 40 MPG car(thread)

 
Party Boy [TotalFark] 2008-07-05 09:32:09 PM  
/out

 
Harry Freakstorm 2008-07-05 09:34:04 PM  
Freakstorm Motors is also developing an auto that runs on C0s emissions. The 2010 Quandary will actually absorb C02, shiat diamonds and cure cancer.

So far, here is all of our developement and or research:
Idea: A car that runs on C02, shiats diamond (optional) and cures cancer.
+
A Freaking Miracle
=
Profit

Oh, and the car can't look like 1976 AMC Pacer. People seemed pretty turned off about that design.

So, uh, sends those checks in. We could be the next Ford or General Motors. You know. Back when they made cars, hired people and set industry standards. Could being the big word in this paragraph.

 
ImOscar 2008-07-05 09:34:57 PM  
CygnusDarius

So kinda like Children of Men, only replace "no babies" with "no oil," which when you think about it is the baby of the world market.

But the most important question is who will possess this baby:

img61.imageshack.us

 
TigerStar 2008-07-05 09:35:42 PM  
img98.imageshack.us

The future.

 
CygnusDarius [TotalFark] 2008-07-05 09:35:43 PM  
brynaldo:Something like that. Lets not forget crop failure form climate change!

Jesus Christ, that too.

I think in the end, most of the American continent will be nothing but a lawless land, filled with little bater towns in which you'll exchange gas for a week's worth of food, small bands of cattle/seed hunters looking for once-domesticated cows and small branches of edible food to put on their farms, and hordes of former suburbanites (which might be refered to as 'SuburbAnts' or 'SUV zombies') that will consume everything consumable in their path. And scouting squads of chinese/hindu/Saudi troops looking for places to start their invasion. Europe will turn into that as well, with warlords pitting againts each other for pieces of fertile land. Asia might make it, but under chinesse rulership. I honestly don't know what will become of Africa, the place is sadly so conflict-torned, the worst case scenario is that it will be cleansed of all human life (or small pockets of tribes might survive).

Yes, I've given thought on this, I've a few short stories written under a similar scenario.

 
roger77 2008-07-05 09:37:35 PM  
well then, i hope the stand happens (but i'd need to be a survivor for this to matter).

 
Ghastly [TotalFark] 2008-07-05 09:38:28 PM  
What will happen is eventually our energy crisis will become so great that the demand for Wind Power and Nuclear Power will drown out the environmentalists and the not-in-my-back-yarders who are holding those technologies back.

Without cheap energy our entire way of life will collapse and even the super-rich don't want to see that happen. In fact the wealthier the general population is the more money there is for the rich to make.

There'll be a lot of growing pains and it may take a few decades to sort out but in the end we'll all be better off for it.

 
brynaldo 2008-07-05 09:38:50 PM  
CygnusDarius:brynaldo:Something like that. Lets not forget crop failure form climate change!

Jesus Christ, that too.

I think in the end, most of the American continent will be nothing but a lawless land, filled with little bater towns in which you'll exchange gas for a week's worth of food, small bands of cattle/seed hunters looking for once-domesticated cows and small branches of edible food to put on their farms, and hordes of former suburbanites (which might be refered to as 'SuburbAnts' or 'SUV zombies') that will consume everything consumable in their path. And scouting squads of chinese/hindu/Saudi troops looking for places to start their invasion. Europe will turn into that as well, with warlords pitting againts each other for pieces of fertile land. Asia might make it, but under chinesse rulership. I honestly don't know what will become of Africa, the place is sadly so conflict-torned, the worst case scenario is that it will be cleansed of all human life (or small pockets of tribes might survive).

Yes, I've given thought on this, I've a few short stories written under a similar scenario.


Africa will remain unchanged. Heheh, cheap shot.

 
XxDavidZullenxX 2008-07-05 09:40:37 PM  
Just wark away.

Give me the pump, the oir, the gasorine, and the whohre compound, and I'r spale youl rives.

Just wark away. I wirr give you safe passage in the Wasterand.

Just wark away and thele wirr be an end to the hollol...

/One for window seat, please.

 
Ishidan [TotalFark] 2008-07-05 09:42:10 PM  
CygnusDarius 2008-07-05 09:35:43 PM
I think in the end, most of the American continent will be nothing but a lawless land, filled with little barter towns in which you'll exchange gas for a week's worth of food
Who run barter town?

 
thisispete [TotalFark] 2008-07-05 09:44:03 PM  
CygnusDarius:brynaldo:Something like that. Lets not forget crop failure form climate change!

Jesus Christ, that too.

I think in the end, most of the American continent will be nothing but a lawless land, filled with little bater towns in which you'll exchange gas for a week's worth of food, small bands of cattle/seed hunters looking for once-domesticated cows and small branches of edible food to put on their farms, and hordes of former suburbanites (which might be refered to as 'SuburbAnts' or 'SUV zombies') that will consume everything consumable in their path. And scouting squads of chinese/hindu/Saudi troops looking for places to start their invasion. Europe will turn into that as well, with warlords pitting againts each other for pieces of fertile land. Asia might make it, but under chinesse rulership. I honestly don't know what will become of Africa, the place is sadly so conflict-torned, the worst case scenario is that it will be cleansed of all human life (or small pockets of tribes might survive).

Yes, I've given thought on this, I've a few short stories written under a similar scenario.


And we in NZ ought to have some measure of protection due to our distance and the fact we're a net food producer (although there will be problems when it comes to fertiliser). Plenty of coal to run a rail network for 800 years if it comes to that too.

 
CygnusDarius [TotalFark] 2008-07-05 09:44:22 PM  
Ishidan:CygnusDarius 2008-07-05 09:35:43 PM
I think in the end, most of the American continent will be nothing but a lawless land, filled with little barter towns in which you'll exchange gas for a week's worth of food
Who run barter town?


Master Blaster, obviously.

 
CygnusDarius [TotalFark] 2008-07-05 09:45:51 PM  
thisispete:And we in NZ ought to have some measure of protection due to our distance and the fact we're a net food producer (although there will be problems when it comes to fertiliser). Plenty of coal to run a rail network for 800 years if it comes to that too.

The fact that there's few people that give NZ some thought might give you time (until they show in the new how good you got there) to prepare.

 
Ishidan [TotalFark] 2008-07-05 09:45:53 PM  
CygnusDarius 2008-07-05 09:44:22 PM
Master Blaster, obviously.

Master Blaster what? *clicks on the loudspeakers*

 
CygnusDarius [TotalFark] 2008-07-05 09:47:23 PM  
Ishidan:CygnusDarius 2008-07-05 09:44:22 PM
Master Blaster, obviously.

Master Blaster what? *clicks on the loudspeakers*


Maaasterr Blaaaaster (new window).

/...Wait
//That's Grand Master Flash
///Oops

 
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