Should we not be better than this?

We are living in a resource based economy.

The most desirable resource is money that's all. Its the most desirable because its the most useful and easily transferable to other resources that we also desire or need.

Personally i dont hold the view that we are all doomed.
# The population of the world will top out
# when we need an alternative to oil we will find it.
# There is no shortage of water, its all still here.

I could go on.

Our ability to get along is a major issue i agree, and dont think i believe the world is all fluffy bunnies and happy ever after but a lack of resources is not the issue. Anyone that believes the world was a better place prior to the industrial revolution is deluded.

Yours,
free of rickets, scurvy and smallpox.

 

It purely has validity from my own perception which I'm sure you will appreciate and understand.

 

Think how far we have come in the last 150 years versus the millions before. Either God or Aliens will wipe us out and start again. You choose...

 

I don't really care. I will Be dead by the time this happens and will know nothing of it. Unless reincarnation actually happens that is, in which case I'm fucked.

 

I find this interesting, and yet we still get it wrong

 

Absolutely the world is a better place the question is whether it can remain so. It is OK to take a 'the glass is half full' stance but a lack of resources is very much the issue if the rest of the world aspires to our standard of living, beginning with energy.

 

Here we are, stuck on this rock, stuck to it's resources. The Earth provides us with everything we have, everything we need, except humans are resourceful enough to combine elements to make other, more interesting/useful stuff. We are the most intelligent creatures on the planet (so far), so it's likely we'll be the longest lasting inhabitants. Just that some of us worry too much...

 

So long and thanks for all the fish

 

Hi JohnV
What makes you say we suffer a lack of energy. This is simply not true.

Delivering it to the places that need it might be a problem today but that is just an infrastructure build issue. Of course this is a large project but not one that will bring about our demise as a civilisation.

We still rely on oil because its easier(cheaper) than the alternative/s. This is not the same as there not being an alternative. When we have to confront this i fully believe there will be major difficulties and a great deal of expense. But, i say again, it will not be the end of us.

 

Energy is a Forum perennial favourite Desmoboy.

There are those who think man's ingenuity will provide limitless free energy from renewables with the added benefit of jobs for all in the 'green' economy and there are those who think oil has provided the cheap and plentiful energy that we have built the modern world upon and that those heady days are coming to an end.

For me energy will never be as plentiful or as cheap as it has been recently and that will change our world in ways that we are only just beginning to comprehend. The low hanging fruit has been picked.

 

youve misunderstood the definition of a resource based economy. a resource based economy does not require money. money is not a resource. it only has a 'perceived value'...it is paper..
you have explained a monetary economy, ie using a cash transaction for the purchase of goods and services. A resource based economy does not do this.

 

I take a different view to you but i disagree that i have misunderstood "resource"

Without money (paper) what do you envisage that you would require from me for the bushels of corn you grow and i want ?
Or
The transport machine you and your colleagues have built and i want to aqquire.

 

You may have misunderstood what i said.
I agree that oil will never be as cheap again as it is now and i did not say that. But, when we need an alternative we will find it. No it wont be cheap and it may not be easy.
Please re read what i said

 

What do you think that alternative will be ?

 

I don't know john, i never said i did and i am not a wind farm loony. But i am certain that the end of oil is not going to be the end of us.
I have confidence that a big enough problem will produce a big enough solution , that's all. Our future is not all doom and gloom.

 

I don't think the end of oil, as opposed to peak oil, will be anytime soon and yes we, as in the human race, will survive come what may.

I do not share your confidence regarding any big solution though. I hope I am wrong.

 

Nuclear fusion seems to be the most realistic solution to our energy problems and the time that this happens gets nearer.

One giant leap for mankind: £13bn Iter project makes breakthrough in the quest for nuclear fusion, a solution to climate change and an age of clean, cheap energy - Science - News - The Independent

 

what about geothermal....it lasts forever and is in the ground.

 

I am holding out for dilithium crystals.

 

Only viable in areas where the earth's crust is relatively thin such as at tectonic plate boundaries eg Iceland.