How much longer do we have for private motor vehicles?

[racefactory]

Have we ever had the population up around 6 billion and climbing fast?

It's 6.7 billion but it's been slowing down ever since 1963.

[racefactory]

Me why am I future proofing ? not because of peak oil , or the environment ,,,( a little )

but I don't want to work !! ie be a slave to a process or system

Rousseau: said some thing like ... Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.

Ill try my best to avoid, the system.

Spuds anyone?

Stephen

I'll drink to that. Fuck the system.

[imdying]

It's 6.7 billion but it's been slowing down ever since 1963.

It's still a big number, unlikely to get smaller any time soon if you believe this.

One hell of an impediment to tech saving our arse the population is...

[rainman]

When has our quality of life ever fallen?

Globally? Never. But the Romans are just the headline example of individual cultures that have collapsed.

Have we ever had the population up around 6 billion and climbing fast?

Exactly the point. Population is everything. Any farmer knows that you can't keep putting more animals in a paddock without eventually running against the limits of what it can carry. And, just like the paddock, the world is finite, if large.

hell we can already artificially make a petrol replacement no engine or petrol station alterations needed

Do tell.

(As long as you're not one of those "run your engine on water" nutbars. In which case I'll pass, thanks).

Me why am I future proofing ? not because of peak oil , or the environment ,,,( a little )

but I don't want to work !! ie be a slave to a process or system

Rousseau: said some thing like ... Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.

Ill try my best to avoid, the system.

Have you come across this chap? Sounds like you might like some of his work.

It's 6.7 billion but it's been slowing down ever since 1963.

Um, not really. The rate of change has been stable since a drop in about 1990, according to the data I had a look at. But it's still steadily growing in absolute terms, which is what counts.

And the earth ain't getting any bigger.

[racefactory]

So what we really need is a world war, then we'll be able to happily continue filling up our cars and bikes.

[Scuba_Steve]

Do tell.

(As long as you're not one of those "run your engine on water" nutbars. In which case I'll pass, thanks).

Water? na not on it's own ya gotta mix it 50/50 with sugar

Maybee not quite production ready, but POC ready at this stage.

"having first developed a means of storing hydrogen in microfibers that could greatly simplify the design of Hydrogen vehicles. But, perhaps even more impressive is a "synthetic fuel" the company is working on which is, essentially, pure hydrogen captured into microbeads. You know, like the kind that float in your shampoo and give your hair that extra lustre, but explosive. These beads can be poured into the gas tank of a car with an internal combustion engine (presumably suspended in some sort of liquid) and, with no modification, that car will run just fine. Best news is that this concoction costs just $1.50 per gallon"

[rainman]

"having first developed a means of storing hydrogen in microfibers that could greatly simplify the design of Hydrogen vehicles. But, perhaps even more impressive is a "synthetic fuel" the company is working on which is, essentially, pure hydrogen captured into microbeads. You know, like the kind that float in your shampoo and give your hair that extra lustre, but explosive. These beads can be poured into the gas tank of a car with an internal combustion engine (presumably suspended in some sort of liquid) and, with no modification, that car will run just fine. Best news is that this concoction costs just $1.50 per gallon"

Ah. I've heard about this microfibre/bead approach, and it does sound more promising than a big H tank in the car and a new engine. Wonder how well it will work with existing vehicles though? Would you run your bike on it? What sort of energy return does it get?

And of course H is not a source of energy, so you have to get it from somewhere first. Which is where the difficulties may creep in.
Wind or Solar - promising but not very efficient, and not nearly enough capacity out there now.
Nuclear - Fukushima. I mean, hard to ramp up quickly, and not much spare capacity. Long build cycles.
Coal - well, there's the inconvenient matter of climate change.

But I wish them every success and hope it works out. They may be part of the future solution, but I suggest they're not a drop in replacement. How quickly do you think a new tech like this could be rolled out on a global scale, and at what cost?

[marty]

i heard this week that there have been new natural gas reserves found within the USA mainland - the availability is now estimated to be more than 2000 trillion cubic feet. natural gas consumption in the USA is currently 22 TCF/year......world reserves are estimated at over 5000TCF

[bogan]

Exactly the point. Population is everything. Any farmer knows that you can't keep putting more animals in a paddock without eventually running against the limits of what it can carry. And, just like the paddock, the world is finite, if large.

The key here is the farmer knows this, and controls breeding accordingly. It's ok though, as China takes over we can expect them to make a similar call.

[Scuba_Steve]

Ah. I've heard about this microfibre/bead approach, and it does sound more promising than a big H tank in the car and a new engine. Wonder how well it will work with existing vehicles though? Would you run your bike on it? What sort of energy return does it get?

And of course H is not a source of energy, so you have to get it from somewhere first. Which is where the difficulties may creep in.
Wind or Solar - promising but not very efficient, and not nearly enough capacity out there now.
Nuclear - Fukushima. I mean, hard to ramp up quickly, and not much spare capacity. Long build cycles.
Coal - well, there's the inconvenient matter of climate change.

But I wish them every success and hope it works out. They may be part of the future solution, but I suggest they're not a drop in replacement. How quickly do you think a new tech like this could be rolled out on a global scale, and at what cost?

well the research appears to be owned by Shell so roll out would not be a problem & their marketing it as a "drop in" replacement for 90% of vehicles. It'll be something like this that'll replace oil if the time ever comes. It's a shame I haven't seen anything more of the farmer effluent pond algae that could be used as bio-diesel that Canterbury uni (I think?) was researching, I thought it was all but ready to be used, & I could do with some cheap diesolium

[rainman]

i heard this week that there have been new natural gas reserves found within the USA mainland - the availability is now estimated to be more than 2000 trillion cubic feet. natural gas consumption in the USA is currently 22 TCF/year......world reserves are estimated at over 5000TCF

Not as easy to move around though, and there is the small matter of global warming. Also 40% is in Russia and Iran...

The key here is the farmer knows this, and controls breeding accordingly. It's ok though, as China takes over we can expect them to make a similar call.

As the old question goes: are human beings smarter than yeast?

[Winston001]

The key here is the farmer knows this, and controls breeding accordingly. It's ok though, as China takes over we can expect them to make a similar call.

Mmmm...the Chinese experiment on population control has failed. For one thing it only applies to Han chinese, not other ethnic groups, which effectively means only 36% of their population. Furthermore people don't like it or obey it so the population continues to grow.

Have we ever had the population up around 6 billion and climbing fast?

Agreed. I'm afraid I have a dark vision of the near future where we hit the wall and world population drops through war, famine, and disease. However there will still be plenty of people and they will have the advantage of technology to survive - and thrive.

[Winston001]

Globally? Never. But the Romans are just the headline example of individual cultures that have collapsed.

But that's the point: humans overall forge ahead and life gets better. The societies which fail do so because other more vigorous groups overwhelm them.

Just as an aside, the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly the Belgian Congo) is possibly the only current nation to be worse off today than it was a century ago.

Still getting rid of the Phlegm

[Brian d marge]

Have you come across this chap? Sounds like you might like some of his work.

No I havent , but from the little I read seems ok, I can add this one http://opensourceecology.org/

and http://www.britchopper.co.uk/forum/

Im all right Jack .....a small milling machine is my one wish ... and a 3d scanner .....oh and the wife to listen ( to anyone /thing) ....

Stephen

[Ocean1]

But that's the point: humans overall forge ahead and life gets better. The societies which fail do so because other more vigorous groups overwhelm them.

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded- here and there, now and then- are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people.

Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as "bad luck."