Peak Oil News and Message Boards

http://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2017/ ... rmittency/
The growing gap between our lofty ambitions meeting up with the realities of biophysical limits

It will only be the age of intermittency for those who choose to live the lowdensity intermittent energy lifestyle. We are a vey long way yet from running out of energy. A minor shortfall in oil or natural gas can still easily be made up with coal, and if we go low carbon nuclear is so vastly superior to solar pv with battery packs consuming vast acerage of land to fill current needs let alone future needs as less fossile fuel becomes available on the down slope.

pstarr wrote:"A minor shortfall in oil or natural gas can still easily be made up with coal"

Maybe then. Not now.

You constantly repeat this claim as if there were a mountain of evidence to support it. You have no such evidence, just a profound belief in doom.

pstarr wrote:It analyzed programs to replace petroleum with liquid coal or CTL. The cost and duration of such mitigation is virtually impossible.

The Hirsch report came out prior to shale, prior to lithium EVs. It's just plain outdated.

You said there wasn't time because you have some sort of accelerated time-line involved in making oil unavailable for that transition. There is no evidence of that accelerated time-line in Hirsch's 2005 predictions or in your going on about it now pstarr.

Cog wrote:You said there wasn't time because you have some sort of accelerated time-line involved in making oil unavailable for that transition. There is no evidence of that accelerated time-line in Hirsch's 2005 predictions or in your going on about it now pstarr.

From my understanding the Hirsh report didn't opine about when PO would happen only that we needed at least a 20 to 30 period of time to make a relatively smooth transition. Otherwise we would face serious hardships and difficulties in transitioning. A special emphasis was given to the transportation sector because of its importance and because of its reliance on liquid energy in the form of oil. Hence, the importance of OIL

I didn’t say anything about using coal to oil technology, though that is certainly one option. For this occasion I was thinking more along the lines of the colloidal fuel the US Government developed forty five years ago to replace diesel fuel for large ships and locomotives. So long as shipping remains operational we maintain our civilization. Sure it will change in structure as we slide down the peak, but we won’t all starve or freeze in the dark.