Haha, the Oil is running out. Wait, what?

The distinguished EpicArtifex spake:

Plastic cannot be recycled an indefinite amount of times, due to its atomic structure weakening between each recycle.

Oil is made into a huge amount of polymers, such as fuels, plastics, and even fertilisers and medicines. To say that we could just 'do without it' is a somewhat uninformed claim, since a lot of what you own will have been made from oil. All your elctronic gadgets and stuff which are made of plastic will have origins in oil.

While we are trying to come up with efficient alternatives, it isn't just a matter of "Let's just go without."

One day we will have to do without it. It would be a lot better if people actually stopped now. I mean im sure their are other materials that could be replaced? Like some that don't conduct electricity or that are just strong enough that gamma rays can still get through it (we do this to sterilise things). Fuels? Theirs so many things we can burn. Its only a matter of time. Hopefully we'll not use it all now.

God...

Believe in your dreams and your wishes may just come true.

a.smith, this is going on what you said about getting electric cars to go to work. If the cars are slower, then the commute would take longer. If the commute takes longer, less work hours. If there are less work hours, then income would decrease. Erasing automobiles is just a bad idea.

10 years on SDK

Also, a/.smith, about it being better if we used it up all now: That is not true. Rather making it last as long as possible and working out a new fuel source along the way would be better.

Another thing: Oil isn't that close to running out. Maybe 400 years, maybe less. But it'll be awhile. The US has NEVER drilled much, and not much drilling has been done in the Arctic/Antarctic areas either.

10 years on SDK

The distinguished Jack10 spake:

Also, a/.smith, about it being better if we used it up all now: That is not true. Rather making it last as long as possible and working out a new fuel source along the way would be better.

Another thing: Oil isn't that close to running out. Maybe 400 years, maybe less. But it'll be awhile. The US has NEVER drilled much, and not much drilling has been done in the Arctic/Antarctic areas either.

400 years? Crap thats not good o.O you say its awhile but so what? People are still going to live 400 years in the future. I kniw nothing about the drilling but i know America use waaay too much fuel.

This made me laugh. What news station do you listen to? There is PLENTY of oil. Our dear president just doesn't want us drilling for it. There is actually enough oil on U.S. soil that we could stop depending on other countries for oil. But no! We must stay in debt so that the country fails.

If you have been paying attention, we were going to make a deal with Canada about getting more oil, but Obama would not let them build the pipes for transport. So, China swooped in and guess what? They made a deal with Canada. And what's even better, China has been buying land all over the U.S. and over the last four years, they have bought more land than ever.

Never forget those who have made you who you are.

The distinguished YourDream spake:

This made me laugh. What news station do you listen to? There is PLENTY of oil. Our dear president just doesn't want us drilling for it. There is actually enough oil on U.S. soil that we could stop depending on other countries for oil. But no! We must stay in debt so that the country fails.

If you have been paying attention, we were going to make a deal with Canada about getting more oil, but Obama would not let them build the pipes for transport. So, China swooped in and guess what? They made a deal with Canada. And what's even better, China has been buying land all over the U.S. and over the last four years, they have bought more land than ever.

Yea but we still are using way too much. isn't it important that our future generations still have oil?

we are using oil as fules mainly whivh is a problem since it could be used for many other things. We need a better source of fuel.

The distinguished Moulder spake:

How about something that does not pollute our environment?

Exactly!

The distinguished a.smith spake:

we are using oil as fules mainly whivh is a problem since it could be used for many other things. We need a better source of fuel.

Only a tiny proportion of oil is used as fuel. Most of it goes into polymers.

Black holes suck.

The distinguished EpicArtifex spake:

The distinguished a.smith spake:[quote]we are using oil as fules mainly whivh is a problem since it could be used for many other things. We need a better source of fuel.

Only a tiny proportion of oil is used as fuel. Most of it goes into polymers.[/quote]
Its actually a mixture of oil and alcahol. A lot of oil is made into fuel also to extract everything from crude oil inc. the polymers. so for more oil to be used to make plastics would be kinda impossible lol. Plus a lot of people have a car so you can't really say not much is used.

I never said not much is used, I just said that only a small proportion is used as fuel, in comparison to polymers.

Black holes suck.

The distinguished EpicArtifex spake:

I never said not much is used, I just said that only a small proportion is used as fuel, in comparison to polymers.

Well thats a kinda pointless thing to say lol

It isn't pointless at all. It's highly relevant. Even if we all stopped using oil as a fuel, there would still be a large amount going into other things.

Black holes suck.

The distinguished EpicArtifex spake:

It isn't pointless at all. It's highly relevant. Even if we all stopped using oil as a fuel, there would still be a large amount going into other things.

But it would still be reduced a massive amount.

Not as much as you'd think. Like I said, fuel makes up only a small proportion of our oil usage.

Black holes suck.

The distinguished EpicArtifex spake:

Not as much as you'd think. Like I said, fuel makes up only a small proportion of our oil usage.

But everything in fuel is made up of non-renewable materials. The only exception is alcahol but its so much easyer to get alcahol from fuel that nobody bothers. Also not all of the stuff in crude oil can be made into plastics. E.g. alkanes. If we reduce the amount of fuel we use for driving, it can be used for more things like factorys. The things that can be made into plastics are never burned so really theirs no point involving them, unless we're talking about replacing them. unfortunately theirs not much thats as good as plastics.