Peak oil economic impact

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Yeah, seriously, at this point I'm just going to plan for the future, because we can't stop it--we can just try to deal with what will be happening.

Stockpiling genetically modified grain might be a good idea, though. And building nuke plants - we can't build enough to actually replace oil, but every single one built and operational reduces the shock.

Actually, we can build more than enough to replace oil. We just can't build them in time. That is a huge distinction. Ultimately, we will build more than enough; we will just suffer beforehand.

[PeZook]

Actually, we can build more than enough to replace oil. We just can't build them in time. That is a huge distinction. Ultimately, we will build more than enough; we will just suffer beforehand.

Yes, that's what I meant. We can't build enough by the time we get hit, but every one that's operational before will make it easier to pick up the pieces.

[Mr Flibble]

Duchess I'd be interested in hearing what you'd expect the impact of peak oil would be on Australia, if you have the time.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Duchess I'd be interested in hearing what you'd expect the impact of peak oil would be on Australia, if you have the time.

Very little difference from the United States. You have more than enough uranium for nukes in the long term.

The difference is that you'll have much, much harder work in mitigating global warming, which will hit you first and harder. You're already in the midst of grave water crises. You need to construct massive banks of nuclear-powered desalination plants, and on top of that, you need to open a canal from the ocean to Lake Eyre and let it flood up to sea level, which should have the effect of increasing rainfall in parts of the country. Stocking the new basin with salt-water fish that are entirely Australia's to enjoy won't be bad side effect, either, and there are some varieties of GM rice now which grow along the shores of salt water quite nicely.

[Mr Flibble]

Very little difference from the United States. You have more than enough uranium for nukes in the long term.

The difference is that you'll have much, much harder work in mitigating global warming, which will hit you first and harder. You're already in the midst of grave water crises. You need to construct massive banks of nuclear-powered desalination plants, and on top of that, you need to open a canal from the ocean to Lake Eyre and let it flood up to sea level, which should have the effect of increasing rainfall in parts of the country. Stocking the new basin with salt-water fish that are entirely Australia's to enjoy won't be bad side effect, either, and there are some varieties of GM rice now which grow along the shores of salt water quite nicely.

Thanks for the info.

Well work is already being done on desalination plants, unfortunately not nuke powered, but probably coal powered. Momentum is moving behind nuclear power here though I doubt it will get anywhere before peak oil hits due to the Australian public's extreme ignorance. I have doubts about a canal to Lake Eyre also, I can here the environmentalists screaming already despite all the benefits that it would have. It will become cheaper to do once sea levels rise though.

As long as a warmer Earth behaves as it has in the recent geological past the increase precipitation might end up helping some of our water problems, although I believe Perth is totally screwed, but the real issue here is extremely poor management over the past two centuries. I have pretty much advocated amongst my colleagues that for Australia the biggest issue right now is to get on top of the water problem (which as I said in the other thread I believe is separate from global warming).

As far as I know our research organisations like CSIRO are working quite hard on GM plants particularly drought and salt resistant. We just have to hope that the water problem gets solved before we lose the vast majority of our arable land to dryland salinity.

On the plus side we have lots and lots of coal to supply us with electricity until we get nukes up and running, and we also have one of the world's last unexplored possible oil provinces and we know there is oil there, just not where it is. And we don't have a huge population to support. Once of course the world turns nuclear we get to reap the rewards of having 30% of the worlds known uranium reserves, plus plenty of prospective uranium regions.