Your Questions About Renewable Energy World
Jenny asks…
Should we have a law in place where the oil companies have to reinvest in renewable energy¬ buy back stocks?
The oil companies take the money they make and buy back there own stocks so the value of the stocks go higher.. Shouldn’t they reinvest the money in renewable energy
admin answers:
Oil companies would not willingly work toward research renewable energy, because once a low cost solutions are made available they would be out of work, even we enact a law require them do it, they would find ways to work around it, remember the low efficiency wind power turbines? That was a total waste of money.
It’ll be more efficient to tax oil companies heavily, drive the price of oil up. Once oil is very expansive (like now), investors will begin looking into developing renewable energy. Because the investors are putting their OWN money in, the projects will be better monitored, more efficient. Also, when oil price is high, consumers are more willing to switch, demand for renewable energy will be up, driving price up, supply will naturally move up.
Alas the world will be saved by capitalism
James asks…
Can you believe how much energy we waste?
I’m in the middle of a project for college here. Some interesting facts: Oil production peaked in the mid seventies, natural gas production will peak in 2020, the most efficient engine we use at the moment is the diesel engine which is approx 40% efficient for the fuel put in to the work done. Renewable energy (solar, wind, tidal, etc) still only accounts for a tiny percentage of the energy we use! We are totally screwed! We still breed like rabbits and still don’t treat the world responsibly! At this rate the world will be out of resources within 100 years, by then we’ll HAVE to use renewable sources of energy but the pollutants that will exist then will have completely b*ggered up the planet! Any thoughts?
Jeez Kev, that’s a bit harsh, not getting any? In fact they reckon the population will increase and hold at approximately 10 billion by 2050. We are indeed using more oil than ever but the overall number of SOURCES of oil has not been increasing since the seventies. Read the question and don’t make assumptions. Live and let live. And lose the superior attitude.
admin answers:
Hey T M Good Question.
Have a look at [Link 1] I think it will help flesh out your project.
Focusing in on the population curve: have you wondered why it’s shown to flatten out (sigmoid growth)? And more importantly do you believe that it will simply flatten out? [Link 2 & 3]
I think we’re in for a bit of boom and bust regards global population levels. Declining fertility rates (not contraception) and lack of access to basic requirements (clean food and water) will eventually mean that the population will reach equilibrium – a starvation equilibrium. But declinig natural resources, shifting enironmental conditions, competition for scarsening resources and habitable areas (leading to wars – and we’ve seen that in Iraq already) combined with the environmental impact of global warming; put all this together and I recon we’re headed for a population crash.
Best wishes LT
PS: Making statements that could possibly be construded as acknowledging the bleeding obvious, namely that we are trashing the planet big time and that we are, for example responsible for global warming – is a rather contentious area and as you have seen with at least one respondent, likely to lead to a ‘naysyaer’ back lash. Don’t be put off – you’re spot on with your observations – and remember the debate on environmental issue has now moved on – the debate is OVER, we are screwing up the environment and behaving irresponsibly, that’s now the offical position. However, for some people no matter how much evidence is brought forward, no matter how bad the weather gets or how many species go extinct, no matter how many people starve to death or are displaced from their homes due to rising sea levels or drought or other climatic changes, they’ll never believe that it’s us to blame – that’s because they have alterior motives (namely vested self interest, greed and/or stupidity) which are over riding their morals (assuming they have any) and common sense (again assuming they have any).
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