New Mars Forums

Official discussion forum of The Mars Society and MarsNews.com

You are not logged in.

Announcement

Announcement: As a reader of NewMars forum, we have opportunities for you to assist with technical discussions in several initiatives underway. NewMars needs volunteers with appropriate education, skills, talent, motivation and generosity of spirit as a highly valued member. Write to newmarsmember * gmail.com to tell us about your ability's to help contribute to NewMars and become a registered member.

#826 2022-12-20 11:22:00

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 6,976

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

I won't argue against what you have said.

Done.


Done.

Offline

#827 2022-12-20 19:29:02

kbd512
Administrator
Registered: 2015-01-02
Posts: 7,362

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

Void,

I'm against deliberately constructing an artificial reality that allows more and more people to starve to death in service to a morally bankrupt ideology, including their own.  We are not running out of energy.  We have plenty of it.  We are running out of people who are intelligent enough to know that they need it.

A constitutional republic, not a democracy.  The ideal of a democracy is universal equality.  The ideal of a constitutional republic is individual liberty.  A democracy always degenerates into dictatorship which promises government guaranteed equality and security, but it delivers nothing but poverty and serfdom for the people it robs and rules.  America was founded as a constitutional republic to safeguard the liberties of the people against the tyranny of democracy, or of one-man dictatorship.  In this century great strides have been made toward the goal of subverting our republic into a democracy.  The foremost tactic of the subverters is subversion of language.  By calling America a democracy until people thoughtlessly accept and use the term, the totalitarians have obscured the real meaning of our principles of government.

Former FBI Agent Dan Smoot

Offline

#828 2022-12-20 21:38:46

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 6,976

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

I am not in disagreement with you.

However, I believe in a natural reset built into reality.  That does not prevent bad things from happening.  But there are consequences.  I was reared a "Democrat", but find that they offer me nothing at all, and really wish me to be the daddy as per to give, but they have no concern whatsoever about my needs and desires.  But my life is good compared to most people in time, and most people alive today.  I might wish for more but perhaps I don't disserve any more.  I certainly don't want any more trouble.

That might sound like a coward, but perhaps it is to avoid being foolish.  Foolish would be to thrash about without understanding.  It is my opinion that I understand some things that most don't.  I expect the bad actors to have bad consequences over time.  They are under the illusion that they can rig the machine and it will not tilt.

My opinion is that they already are senile and are already damaging themselves.  So, rather than to think that I should do something that they could frame me as a bad actor that they could find a method to "Handle", I prefer to let the hand of God do God's will.

But if I were a doctor, I would withhold treatment, as although I think I have a diagnosis, I don't think that my interference would help.

The USA is more blessed than most people can possibly imagine, I believe.

Done.

Last edited by Void (2022-12-20 21:44:43)


Done.

Offline

#829 2022-12-22 00:39:39

kbd512
Administrator
Registered: 2015-01-02
Posts: 7,362

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

Void,

I'm neither doctor nor deity, but I prefer to solve the problem before anyone dies.  The Great Depression happened when too little attention was paid to the fundamentals of prosperity.  Prosperity is a byproduct of responsibility and accountability.  It's not accidental.  I think we've had too little of both in more recent times.  Mostly, I know what will happen if we fail to respond appropriately to dangerous situations.  Although I'm not risk-averse, the danger associated with running out of energy is societal collapse on a grand scale.  We've come much too far for that.  Our fate was never written in stone, so far as I'm aware of.  It's up to all of us.  The wicked should not be allowed to dictate terms to humanity.  They're cockroaches who quickly scatter after daylight is shone upon their evil activities.  The wicked have a right to exist, like everyone else, but they're certainly no better than anyone else and we don't actually need them.  They can either mend their ways or be relegated to the scrap heap of history, like so many other wicked men and women who tried and ultimately failed to oppress the human spirit.  While the meek shall never inherit the Earth until the last of the wicked are gone, those with a backbone and a sense of right and wrong, will.  We know this from our own history.  Some may have forgotten their history, but some is not all.  We have what we need to move forward, so I suggest that we do.

Offline

#830 2022-12-22 12:27:13

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 6,976

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

Those notions have some merit.

I was tempted to leave it at that.  I know you probably would want more.

These are "MY" opinions.  I don't require that they be accepted by others.  You seem to want to know how I stand on things.

In my opinion the main basic war, beyond Man (Man being inclusive of Womb Man as well), it the war with the Idiot Savant Verbals.  https://www.bing.com/search?q=Idiot+sav … 48982e5f56

We have a disease in our population which is the verbal hive mind.  When the population was hunter gatherer, there would have been clan and tribe clashes, but not as much a concentrate specialization of a verbal and violent class.

In some circumstances, such a specialization can be beneficial, up until the point that there are no generalists in charge, but only Idiot Savant Verbals/Violent.  They are not even capable of understanding how things get done.
They are like the witches in Harry Potter, where they expect to speak words and it shall be done.  If they do not get this result then they will begin to lash out at anything that does not please them.  Like stupid bratty children.  But they do know how to assign servants to attack anything that displeases them, either because they don't get the result they want, or from jealousy of a power they do not understand.

They create school systems that affirm that they are the best and the brightest.

They are capable of reading, and when we flail about with words more than we need to, we empower them as we give them test data.  It is like jumping into a tank with a shark, because you are angry with the shark.

If they are idiot savants, then they will indeed screw up for themselves.  We also may suffer a bit, but if we continuously give them readings of how we think, then they can better own us.  So, less is more.  Reality is continuously changing.  They generally do not have the ability to understand what is going on unless we foolishly tell them.

I did a study of something some time ago, it was interrupted by idiots, but I got part of what I was seeking.
I found something like the Fourth Turning on my own before I ever encountered that body of words.

Mine was a little different, but then also the same.  I do believe in a flip flop action.  They believe in a segmented period; I believe in the flip flopping of the segments.  If you like a polarity.  (+) is followed by (-) and so on.

There is also more but I will not say.  So, you see, if I understand that the old era with favored specialization, is followed by one that favors generalists, I may waste my time lashing out against a power entity who must face the fact that they do not understand reality.  They have no eyes.  They have no grasp.

If we see for them, and also become their hands, we conspire against ourselves to serve them.

So, at least think like a hunter gatherer.  You don't talk more than you need to.  As it may foil you gain or enable your loss.

Of course, they want to talk to us.  Then when we make them see, they will manipulate things so that we have no gain and may suffer loss.

They are jealous of power and abilities, and so will not reward us, rather they will seek to take us as captives, yet again, or perhaps even beyond slavery enabled by words and violence, they might end us.

So, don't be surprised if conversation ends.  Conversation is for survival purposes only.

Done

Last edited by Void (2022-12-22 13:01:39)


Done.

Offline

#831 2022-12-22 14:57:34

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 16,754

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

For Void ....

Interesting as recent posts may be, they don't seem to have anything to do with the topic.

The topic title seems pretty clear ... SpaceNut periodically shows the price of gasoline in New Hampshire, as an example.

It is only fair that I follow my own suggestion.

Per Google:

The average price of a gallon of gas has increased to $3.56 nationally. (Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Northeast Ohio gas prices fluctu..


(th)

Offline

#832 2022-12-22 16:53:08

Void
Member
Registered: 2011-12-29
Posts: 6,976

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

(th) Yes, I lost track of where I was.  Sorry.

I filled up today, $2.99.

Done.


Done.

Offline

#833 2022-12-23 00:37:35

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

This coincided with rising prices from opec and not wanting to up production so by releasing at a price just below theirs the production was artificially increased. The flood of product also caused prices to drop as production from the higher priced was not slowed causing them to drop again.
The restock is going to be about timing for getting the amount at the correct price to restore the strategic asset.
180/562 = 32% was released



New electric car buying incentives kick in Jan. 1, and a lot has changed.

Will need to do research on what is possible to declare.

Offline

#834 2022-12-23 07:24:42

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 16,754

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

For SpaceNut re #833

Thanks for additional reporting on the management of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve!

Please report your ongoing research as you evaluate electric vehicle options. There are two issues/concerns that seem (to me at least) worth considering as you proceed...

The leader of the local Linux group here owns a Tesla, and he's driven it across the country and back using the free charging stations available to early buyers.  He reports that his range drops with cold weather, which matches reports I have read online.  He has NOT mentioned replacing tires, so I'll try to remember to ask about that next month.  Somewhere I read a suggestion that tires might have to be replace sooner due to the weight of the cars, but that just could have been a stick-in-the-mud gas-loving grump trying to find fault with electric vehicles.

A capitalist response to the challenge of tire life would be to research ways to extend tire life, and to implement them in mass production.

A capitalist response to the challenge of losing range due to cold would be to research ways to manage heat flows in battery packs. In ordinary operation, my understanding is that removing heat from a battery pack is necessary, but in cold climate conditions, perhaps insulation would be helpful?   Those two needs are not compatible (as far as I can see right now).

Perhaps an answer is to use home power to keep the batteries warm overnight. They would (presumably) warm themselves during a run, and having a warming service to go with recharging at the destination would (presumably) solve the problem for the return trip.

This topic is about Current Gasoline/Petrol Prices$

$2.804
Cleveland-Lorain-Elyria
Regular    Mid
Current Avg.    $2.804    $3.272
Yesterday Avg.    $2.803    $3.275
Week Ago Avg.    $2.888    $3.380
Month Ago Avg.    $3.477    $3.966
1 more row

(th)

Offline

#835 2022-12-23 09:40:25

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

Today we are getting hit with lots of rain and gusting winds. There is also ponding and culvert overflows as well when out driving. This is also causing power outage as well for me to contend with. Since the home is down hill for the cresting water to flow into the yard and home. We are currently without power with no time line for restoration.

Have been watching videos on the Prius for repair and it's issues can be caused by piston ring for the oil consumption. The battery pack cells can be part of the noisy engine as well as other things.

Gas prices are holding at $3.35

Offline

#836 2022-12-23 10:02:54

tahanson43206
Moderator
Registered: 2018-04-27
Posts: 16,754

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

For SpaceNut re #835

Best wishes for speedy restoration of power!

Re Prius ... Bing has noticed my inquiries about Prius, and it has decided to show me a Prius every time I open the browser on a Windows machine. Today it is showing me a bright red Prius available locally for $10,999. It has 131,000 miles.

Based upon your experience, I'd be hesitant to seriously consider a used Prius, without a deep dive by Toyota and careful review of it's maintenance history.

The price of gas in Miami today is reported to be $3.35. The range was 3.03 - 4.39 over 1700 stations.

The earlier discussion about a ? WalMart ? car rental service seems (as I think about it now) to be well worth considering for a Mars community.

A Mars outdoor vehicle would be an expensive resource, and it would make sense for a business to own and maintain the vehicle, and to rent it out to those who can justify the cost of making a trip somewhere.

I am overdue updating My Hacienda ... there was a discussion recently of adding a new specialization to the list, and vehicle rental would be a worthwhile addition as well.

(th)

Offline

#837 2022-12-23 18:57:32

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

Looks like from the videos that head gaskets are quite common for failures.

From all of the videos there are lots of causes for what I have had happen for how to diagnose the vehicle.
I have seen that you can even use a cellphone app toi interface to the cars computer system via the blue tooth connection as well as the obd port.

Offline

#838 2022-12-24 19:27:48

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

Now that power is back up for me, I journeyed out to get a few things and the price of gas did rise to $3.42.

If the Prius was working, I could do this but for a vehicle that battery it's only going to last a small amount of time since there is no recharging without a means to do so.

https://builditsolar.com/Projects/Vehic … yPower.htm

Offline

#839 2022-12-27 17:03:13

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

So, if you are wanting but have not made that step Interested in purchasing an electric car? This 2023 tax credit could help.

Found a video on the Prius for trouble shooting misfires turns out it was not plugs or coil but injector

https://youtu.be/CWx-EyFSygs

Here is a 2005 Prius bad high voltage traction battery repair
https://youtu.be/lSwUEVx5G3U

2005 code 1121 repair
https://youtu.be/9NUrZ2WJRws

Inverter coolant pump poa93 for gen 2
https://youtu.be/St4QJ--tpq4

How to put into on screen diagnosis mode

https://youtu.be/2Zoauia0aFg

Offline

#840 2022-12-29 11:06:53

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

Price of a gallon has dropped this morning to $3.39 where it was before the storm.

Took the diagnostic tool and checked the engine computer codes and it has this one:
http://carspecmn.com/2001-2009-prius-p3 … il-repair/

The 3190 code just means there is a lose of power.

To generic to make use of other than to check head compression of each cylinder to rule out head gasket and rings.
One person engine swap

https://youtu.be/Y5-Hcxddm_k

and https://www.autocodes.com/p0303_2007_toyota_prius.html
a 303 cylinder 3 misfire of course spark plug has been replaced so it's not that....
need to check for a Clogged or faulty fuel injector 3
as well as the Faulty ignition coil 3

Those wanting a tax break
https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/ … 3-or-after

Offline

#841 2023-01-01 18:40:18

Calliban
Member
From: Northern England, UK
Registered: 2019-08-18
Posts: 3,352

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

750775-1.png


"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

Offline

#842 2023-01-01 18:56:30

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

That means greed is setting in to hoard the barrels since they can be bought cheaper than what the US industry is desiring to sell them for.

Offline

#843 2023-04-15 19:44:01

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

We have seen a quick rise to $3.49 a gallon after oil sales from the Saudi's change to valuing against the Chinese/Russian currency.

Offline

#844 2023-04-16 11:00:31

kbd512
Administrator
Registered: 2015-01-02
Posts: 7,362

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

SpaceNut,

President Joe Biden promised to treat Saudi Arabia as a "pariah state".  Maybe you think that was "just a joke", but the Saudis sure as hell didn't.  I think they actually took offense to it.  Instead of encouraging domestic oil production, if making Saudi Arabia a "pariah sate" was his plan all along, his administration's policies made it functionally impossible to drill for oil here in America.  Increased oil prices were the only possible result.  His energy secretary cackled like a hyena at the spike in oil prices on national television, yet had no explanation whatsoever regarding what she intended to do about it.

President Biden's energy policies made us dependent upon foreign oil sources from countries that don't like him or America very much.  Since nobody is allowed to drill here at home, regardless of which end of his rear he's talking out of, that means the rest of us get poorer.  The poorest amongst us are the ones who suffer the most, per usual.  Maybe he should've thought about that before he shot his mouth off about Saudi Arabia, but he clearly didn't.

Neither Presidents Trump or Obama mouthed off about the Saudis.  I can't fathom why they never did such a thing.  It doesn't make any difference at this point, either.  We're going to be locked into this inflation spiral until the bottom drops out of the economy or we get rid of President Biden, because Democrats only double-down on every mistake they make.  I'm sure they don't view it that way, but any independent observer would.

The Saudis took their ball and decided to keep playing the game with people who were still interested in playing.  That's the only explanation which comports with reality as they understood it for pretty much all of human history.  That was the inevitable result of deciding to break down social structure and civil order in preference to policies which center around disorder and chaos and criminality (maximal "freeness" of the individual at the expense of all other considerations).  The chaos crowd may briefly find this new situation appealing, but violence and destruction always follows the collapse of an ordered and structured society, built around fundamentally true and congruent moral and economic principles guiding the actions of the individual in a way that permits individual freedom to do as we please, but not at the complete expense of the society or humanity or other individuals within that society.

Despite the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on "climate change action", none of that resulted in one lousy power plant being built, regardless of what powers it.  From where I'm sitting, President Biden's "pure genius master plan" looks an awful lot like looting and bankrupting the country.

Offline

#845 2023-04-16 14:45:42

SpaceNut
Administrator
From: New Hampshire
Registered: 2004-07-22
Posts: 28,747

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

So, to treat a country with kid gloves, promise all sort of toys for its military ect.. is sort of bad when the meaning has reversed from what it was 40 years ago?
We have always been defendant on foreign oil once it was cheaper than to provide it from a limited reserve here that was more expensive to provide. We are just now over a barrel since we did not change our ways since the beginning of the US going off the gold standard to that of an oil-based system.

Offline

#846 2023-04-16 16:33:04

kbd512
Administrator
Registered: 2015-01-02
Posts: 7,362

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

SpaceNut,

If your "opener" is to smack talk the leaders of foreign countries providing the energy your economy requires, then you'd better have one hell of a transition plan to stop using what they were previously providing.  No such plan ever existed.  If such a plan had existed, he wouldn't be going back to them, hat in hand, trying to get them to continue supplying what they were supplying.

This is the problem with the left, and especially the radical left.  They have zero impulse control.  Whatever "feels good in the moment" is what they go out and do or say, with total disregard to future consequences.  This applies to how they spend money, their fanciful "green energy" plans, destruction of the nuclear family, destruction of all social norms of a high-functioning civilized society, law and order, or pretty much any other contested topic.

The left doesn't plan.  They emote and impulsively do whatever they wish, irrespective of results.  This is why they are manifestly unsuited to managing America- the world's largest enterprise.  There is room for just about everyone in American society, but not if their plan is to burn it all down to force everyone else to conform to their highly contorted viewpoints about the nature of reality.

Calliban said it best on the subject of electrification and "green energy".  "In the real world, affordable electric transportation for the masses means trains and subway systems, not cars and trucks."  What's the left's track record for making and using highly complex systems like those?  One word- abysmal.  Some of them can maintain the systems designed and built by people who were modestly creative and highly industrious, but most of those people who came up with the ideas, designed real hardware, and then built what we enjoy today, are now dead.

Ever since all the real managers left the Democrat Party, or far fewer of them were allowed to serve because they were replaced with ideologues or imbeciles who would kowtow to the dictates of the party, their demonstrated ability to manage complex projects and undertakings is virtually non-existent.  President Kennedy was a "big ideas" person who unified most people, but then he had people like McNamara and LBJ to run things for him- basically, people with lots of hands-on management experience in subjects relevant to what they were tasked with doing.  They're still highly creative types in their own ways, and we need such creative types to come up with and contribute new ideas to society.  The problem is that a bunch of old recycled ideas (communism, racism, sexism, and other useless to society "isms") or ideas which cause mass death and destruction (burning down your existing energy system before you've even contemplated what would be required to truly replace it) are not helpful.

Why is it not obvious that the way you facilitate an orderly transition from one energy system to the next, is by making more of the thing you think you need to replace whatever you're presently using?  Are we doing any of that?  Where are all the new Copper and Lithium mines opening up across every state in the Union?  $392B spent on the "climate change action" bill, but not one new power plant created, not one new mine has been allowed to open, and not one new manufacturing plant was created.  Is that a declaration of defeat?  You can throw endless money at an ideology without accomplishing anything.  How many times do we need to relearn that lesson?

Offline

#847 2023-04-17 10:42:48

kbd512
Administrator
Registered: 2015-01-02
Posts: 7,362

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

One of the fundamental questions I've pondered over is why these bizarre apocalyptic obsessions of the political left, which the left typically ascribes to the religious political right, attempt to replace the Christian religion with something no different than the very worst aspects of the most puritanical religious practices.  There's the Russia scare, the climate scare, the COVID scare, the radical right scare (the FBI has to bolster the numbers of these radical right people with their own agents because there's not enough of them)...  It's all fear and no critical analysis.  When, if ever, is it time to move beyond fear of the unknown, hatred of others, and self-loathing?

The left's political class will outright ignore countries with nuclear weapons pointed at them, which are actively threatening to use them against us, but behave as if the planet becoming ever so slightly warmer over centuries is a harbinger of "The End Times".  If you truly cannot live without religion, then go to Church.  Pray to "God".  Say the rosary.  Carry out the rituals.  Government is an even worse substitute for a mythical sky wizard, most of the time.  Whereas governments look for new and more inventive ways to "end the world", at least the Christians believe in "world without end", or "in saecula saeculorum" if you prefer, although the English translation from Latin isn't the precise meaning of that Latin phrase.  At least the Christians have a positive and hopeful message hidden amongst all the other awful parts of humanity and the less-desirable aspects of their belief systems.

If you decide to live without religion, as I do, then renounce all fantasies, all baseless fears, and all magical thinking (this includes religious doctrines / practices / rituals of all kinds).  Be responsible for your own actions.  Blame no one and nothing but yourself.  God didn't make you do it, nor did your government or your neighbor or the environment or whatever else.  You either did it, or didn't do it, because you decided to.  Stop asking others to protect you from yourself.  It's not their job.  It's your responsibility.  It always was.  Taking personal responsibility is a major part of being or becoming an adult.  Most of all, stop punishing yourselves for things you haven't done, have zero control over, and have no ability to change.  None of you are going to meaningfully change the weather with present technology, for example.

Offline

#848 2023-04-17 20:10:36

kbd512
Administrator
Registered: 2015-01-02
Posts: 7,362

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

No part of the machinery of modern society runs on electricity alone.  None of the existing all-electric infrastructure is used to create new all-electric machines, whether it's theoretically possible to use them for that purpose or not.  The past 50 years of frenzied activity without accomplishment hasn't changed that paradigm.  Somebody had better give some serious thought to more practical "de-carbonizing" solutions or admit to themselves that such a thing isn't possible.  If they accept the latter proposition over the former, then we'd best get on with the business of synthesizing our liquid fuels from scratch before we truly do hit "peak oil".  If we fail to implement either of those solutions, then there will be an actual unrecoverable environmental catastrophe as humanity burns its way through anything that will burn in a desperate attempt to stave off death just a little longer.

Without liquid fuels, we can kiss all space exploration goodbye.  Nobody would allow someone to put a gallon of precious fuel into a rocket launched into space if people are starving or freezing to death, en-masse, in the countries where they operate.  Sure, there are people in Africa who still starve for lack of energy as of right now, but no African country has ever designed and built an orbital launch vehicle, either.  The moon rockets are manifestations of economic and energy prosperity.  All those people who work for the space faring corporations won't be able to get to work without cars of some kind, nor will they be employable when every last dollar is being sunk into energy solutions.  No bucks, no Buck Rogers.

The issue of energy, its on-demand availability, and our ability to sustain its production over the long term are the factors which will either advance or setback the human endeavor.  The silly games we've played with our energy supplies are only "fun" when we're in no danger of losing.  We trifle with these matters at our own peril.  They're more certain to be greater in their destructive capacity to both humanity and the natural environment than any amount of climate change we've caused or could cause.

Science tells us that more than 99% of all species which ever lived have subsequently ceased to exist.  Humanity had nothing to do with most of that, which seems to suggest that the natural world really doesn't care about our perceptions of ourselves as saviors or destroyers of species or the planet.  Such processes are both inevitable and will continue unabated, whether humanity exists or not.  There is not one polar bear on the planet which would ever think twice about eating a human if it meant living or starving to death.  Those who cannot save themselves cannot possibly save other species, either.  We're fast approaching a time for choosing and prioritization.  If we fail to make the correct choices, then a good number of us, even in supposedly wealthy countries will be reminded that we're still part of the natural world and nature always applies to us with full force, despite the fact that some of us may feel we're "above the fray", such as it were.  We are not and never have been.  We can only make so many mistakes with energy, environment, and ecology before they compound into non-survivable propositions.

Offline

#849 2023-04-18 05:31:20

Calliban
Member
From: Northern England, UK
Registered: 2019-08-18
Posts: 3,352

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

Well put Kbd512.  Political polarisation is a big part of the problem here.  This is the madness of crowds played out for all to see.   I saw it first hand when I first became involved in discussions around Peak Oil in 2007.  The problem was and remains real enough.  Oil deposits are getting smaller, deeper, increasingly offshore and require more capital intensive technologies (especially shale oil and tar sands).  That was a problem.  We needed practical solutions, like more efficient transportation, district heating systems, nuclear power, etc.  But the debate seemed to polarise between people that either insisted that the problem didn't exist at all, and those that hated the status quo and refused to see any outcome other than a catastrophic crash and some kind of road warrior future.  Instead of examining the problem and coming up with sensible mitigation strategies, the whole issue ended up disappearing down a doomer rabbit hole, poisoned by ideology.  It was being used to sell a vision of the future that most people considered outlandish and wacky and was only loosely focused on solving the problem at all.  Thankfully, shale oil came along and bought the world a bit more time to develop better systems.  The problem is still there.  Shale worked in the US because of its unique combination of industrial infrastructure, capital markets, low commodity prices and the cheap money available as a result of zero interest rate policy after 2008.  The time it provided has been squandered on developing systems that are emotionally appealing to some people, but entirely incapable of mitigating the problem in any practical way.  The same thing was done with global warming.  It is a theoretical problem that is rooted in real physics.  But it has been turned into a political campaign to sell a zeitgeist that really has nothing to do with solving the problem, if indeed we accept that the problem is real.

We have seen sufficient analysis now to know that battery-electric technologies for motive power are incapable of scaling to become anything more than niche solutions.  There are hybrid technologies, specifically short range vehicles, power smoothing applications and portable power solutions, in which electro-chemical batteries can play a useful role.  But expecting them to supplant liquid fuels as an energy source is grossly unrealistic.  Their power density and materials requirements make them unsuitable.  But just as real world practicality didn't matter to communists, it doesn't matter to greens either.  They tend not to be technically minded people.  They don't excel when it comes to analytical skills.  If they are degree educated, it won't typically be a STEM subject.  The technology and its limitations goes over their heads.  For them, it is all about selling an emotionally appealing vision.  The problem, whatever it may be, is just a pretext for pushing that vision.  The last thing these people would ever want to see is a technical solution to the problem, because that would invalidate what they are selling.  They spent decades trashing any prospect of nuclear power substituting fossil fuels, because it didn't leave a solution space for 'their solution', which was chosen to fill an emotional rather than practical need.  This is the lunacy that we are up against.

Fully equipped with all the technological tools for solving the problems of planetary limits, we could very well see Earthly civilisation collapse into impoverished and decoupled local systems, unable to lift themselves out of poverty.  When industrial capabilitydeclines beyond a certain point, we will lose the ability to construct things like nuclear reactors.  If supply lines disintegrate enough that we cannot source the required raw materials, then it doesn't matter if someone has the background knowledge to build these things in principle.  We might know how to build pressure tube reactors that can burn natural uranium.  But without the industrial infrastructure to mine and refine zirconium, uranium and steel, we cannot impliment the solution.  This would be a spectacular own goal for humanity, with potentially billions of casualties.  But for a large part of humanity, it looks like the road ahead.  We are not far away from a point of no return.

Last edited by Calliban (2023-04-18 05:47:49)


"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."

Offline

#850 2023-04-18 09:57:37

kbd512
Administrator
Registered: 2015-01-02
Posts: 7,362

Re: Current Gasoline/Petrol Price$

Calliban,

I simply, or not so simply as I'm well aware, want humanity to get ahead of the power curve on this energy and resource depletion issue to ensure we have the required fuels and energy to sustain our present way of life.  We can still fight each other on every other issue, but energy and agriculture and clean drinking water are issues where we should have our solutions nailed down, six ways to Sunday.  Nobody should starve and nobody should freeze to death, except by choice.  If you choose to march off the Golden Gate Bridge, nobody can help you at that point.  Anything short of deliberate insanity / abject stupidity of that nature should be recoverable.  I'm fed up with all the non-solutions squandering so much money and brain power while producing nothing remotely proportionate to the investments into it.

We've spent enough money on "green energy" nonsense to have replaced all the coal burners with nuclear reactors, or to at least produce a solar thermal solution with a large enough energy reservoir to not run out of power.  Trillions of dollars have been spent on photovoltaics, batteries, and wind turbines which have replaced nothing in terms of emissions.  That's why emissions keep going up every year.  They're not a workable solution.  Even if we thumb our noses at cost, do we think the majority of customers would be more or less pleased with an actual energy system replacement that does what it purports to do?

You and I have discussed viable alternatives at some length.  Many other engineers must be aware of material resource limitations, because they have to work within the confines of economics and availability on a daily basis.  What would be required for people who hold the purse strings to understand this?  Do they need to fail utterly and completely before acting as if those limitations are real?

As I said, I'm agnostic on real solutions.  In my book, a solution either does what it says it's supposed to do, or it gets dropped and replaced with something else.  We've tried going back down the energy density totem pole.  It doesn't work for us.  We need fuels and nuclear reactors, or we go back to razing the Earth at a scale unseen in the coal / oil / gas era, looking for more metals and energy to build these all-electric machines.  I think having something left of Earth's natural environment is highly preferable, but opinions clearly vary on this point.

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB