Re: $20 trillion shale oil find surrounding Coober Pedy 'can fuel Australia'
 

Problem is, a good part of the reason why the population of those countries is thought to peak is rising affluence meaning the women don't want to be baby factories, preferring a skinny latte instead. So the population peaks, but the energy use per capita leaps and keeps on rising.

So the overall energy use keeps on rising, way beyond what can be provided....

Water - you need more of it for the above, you can't GM that, and the amount available is decreasing as glaciers melt away.

Sounds like an MBA 'solution' - say we need more of something and expect it to appear. People have been researching better batteries for a LOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGGGGG time now, and although there are potential avenues for improvements, some basic physics gets in the way of revolutionary advances. You are more likely to find an honest politician than to see such a miracle in the next 40 years - so don't rely on it - ye cannae change the laws of physics.

Re: $20 trillion shale oil find surrounding Coober Pedy 'can fuel Australia'
 

Water... Melbourne just future proofed itself for the next 30/40 years, with it's desal plant... what I dont get is how anyone could have been against it :confused: They can also build another one. The easy fix would have been the dam in Tasmania and the pipeline under bass strait but hey ho another fix was found. I understand a Canal through the middle of Australia North to South would also alieviate a lot of the water shortage problems and green up the center.
70pct of Earths surface is water... even if it is mostly salt that should be doable.


Electricty and it's storage/transportation.... I know very little about this subject.... I do know they can move electrcity via microwave now though... maybe the extreme cost of transporting/delivering energy lies in that direction ? Then there will be more money to invest in renewables etc etc.

What I'm basically saying is I'm optimistic about the future and to me rather than doomsay try and find fixes, as mankind has always prevailed in the past.

From my own personal perspective that desal plant was a major factor in me staying here in my house and greening up my garden. I bought turf and have filled the place with European plants.... looks great. I never had the confidence to do that before.... and most importanly I dont mind paying for the privilege either.

Re: $20 trillion shale oil find surrounding Coober Pedy 'can fuel Australia'
 

I don't think humans will starve to death en masse - I'm sure our ingenuity will come up with new ways of producing food and drinkable water. What concerns me is the gradual, or not so gradual, degradation of our environment. It seriously bothers me if we lose the Great Barrier Reef, many species become extinct, rainforests disappear, beaches are eroded away and we lose native species to exotic ones better adapted to the changed conditions.

I think we all have a duty to support efforts to deal with environmental degradation. This doesn't mean you need to become a leftie, tree-hugging greenie - just a responsible citizen with a respect for the natural world we live in and rely upon, ultimately, for our quality of life if not survival.

Re: $20 trillion shale oil find surrounding Coober Pedy 'can fuel Australia'
 

Can I just point out, for all its simplicity and scenario-understanding basis, the Limits to Growth "Do Nothing" model run is matching up pretty well with reality since 1970.

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17ih...g/original.jpg

Re: $20 trillion shale oil find surrounding Coober Pedy 'can fuel Australia'
 

I'm reading an interesting book at the moment called "What's the economy for anyway? Why it's time to stop pursuing growth and start pursuing happiness" by David Bakter and John de Graaf. Basically, it's a critique of laissez faire American style capitalism in favour of pursuing more of a social interventionist northern European economic model - Denmark and the Netherlands are widely cited as being the most progressive countries. It paints rather a bleak picture of today's America which is at or near the bottom (amongst developed countries) on just about every social indicator from life expectancy to poverty. Although Australia is hardly mentioned, our model of economic and social development seems to be closer to Europe than America.

Re: $20 trillion shale oil find surrounding Coober Pedy 'can fuel Australia'
 

I think it is wrong to say mankind has always prevailed in the past, in fact humans seem to just stumble along destroying everything they touch and are seemingly largely oblivious to the long term consequences. The Amazon which is probably the most important region in the world is being destroyed at an alarming rate with no significant improvement in sight. With most things I am anything but a doomsayer but on this I am not overly optimistic about this.