What the hell does the West plan on doing once Peak Oil has been reached?

>trying to develop

Dare do tell. What are these alternative energy sources that being developed?

>The Liberal Hedonistic Materialist lifestyle of the West is completely and utterly unsustainable without Oil.

Drop the Liberal Hedonistic Materialist lifestyle and become patricians? Oops looks like Christianity was right yet again

>If a terrorist did a 9/11-tier attack on a Nuclear plant the catastrophe will be absurd.

Nigga the in the entire 70 year history of nuclear power there have been fewer than 100 direct deaths. For indirect deaths from incidents like Chernobyl you can say there have been a few thousand deaths. Compare it to coal where thousands of people die every month from direct and indirect causes (and that's when it goes right, because coal plants have accidents too). Nuclear is the future, eventually people will realise that vanity projects like wind and solar are memes and stop fearmongering about nuclear energy.

>Nuclear is expensive and dangerous.

Stop memeing. For the amount of energy it generates it isn't.

>nuclear is dangerous
Neck yourself tree hugging cuck

Nuclear could generate 100x the cost it needs. It still won't make it any less cheaper. For a country like America to afford building Nuclear energy, it would have to cut a lot of it's Defense spending and Healthcare spending.

The official policy is "not a boomer problem, don't care." Good luck little buddies.

You're dumb.

>build nuclear power
>cost per kwh is lower
>less coal, solar, wind, and natural gas plants need to be built
>???????
>profit

lrn2math nigger

>Ad Hominem
I'm not Pro-Green energy. I just don't delude myself that Nuclear doesn't have it's own problems.

It's not building Nuclear plants that is the problem. It's maintaining them. Go look at France, and see how much it costs them to maintain their Nuclear plants.

O&M costs are included in cost estimations you double nigger.

>What the hell does the West plan on doing once Peak Oil has been reached?
switch over to an energy portfolio built around nuclear and renewables.

it's the developing countries which are going to get impacted more heavily by peak oil than the West.

>Solar is inconsistent and inefficient.
The only thing holding back solar (and electric cars, for that matter) is battery technology. The advantages of solar is that it decentralizes energy production and makes it so that anyone with decently good credit can make their own electricity, and makes it so that everybody is not dependent on a distant, vulnerable power station. It also employs more people than every other type of energy production combined.

Stop hating on solar. It's not just for hippies, it's for people who like it when their roof makes them money by just sitting there. 40% of California's electricity needs are already being met with solar.

>Nuclear is expensive and dangerous.
Nuclear fusion isn't too far away, and while it is expensive it doesn't have the danger of a meltdown, and there's about a 25 million year supply of fuel just on the Earth alone. Then say hello to electricity too cheap to meter.

>25 million year supply

And what do we do when that runs out? We may as well all kill ourselves now.

That's because they're using shitty plants in the end of their lifespan instead of replacing them.

My dream is this.

>nuclear fusion perfected
>new, abundant source of energy is used to make and store antimatter
>antimatter annihilation engines with near-infinite Delta V become the norm for manned space travel
>trips to Mars now take under a week
>spaceships using 1G acceleration can now reach other solar systems within a human lifetime, using time dilation

>it's the developing countries which are going to get impacted more heavily by peak oil than the West.
I don't think so. The Middle East and Africa have way, way more renewable energy potential than the West.

Levelized cost of nuclear is still less expensive than most of the alternatives.

>solar

Generally more expensive than nuclear per unit of energy generated.

>40% of California's electricity needs are already being met with solar.

No. Maybe in a single day, but anytime you hear a claim like "half of x country is powered by solar" it's usually bullshit

Battery technology needs to exist but it also needs to be affordable, affordability is a long way away.

>Nuclear fusion isn't too far away

lel

just switch to renewable oil like olive oil

Or fast food waste grease

You don't plan your infrastructure around 9/11 tier attacks, that'd be fucking absurd.

>it's the developing countries which are going to get impacted more heavily by peak oil than the West.
No. The Arab Gulf states know that Oil won't last forever, and have already started investing in Nuclear and Renewable energy.

Key word being potential, it's hard to grow an economy in the modern world without the benefit of motorized vehicles.

Luckily, there's plenty of fuel elsewhere in the solar system. Uranus is a tempting choice because of its comparatively weak gravitational field, but we could always just go directly to the source and build a Dyson shell. 25 million years is plenty of time to think about it.

I honestly think that space in-habitation is for the robots. Human bodies deteriorate badly even when spending only a modest amount of time in a zero-gee, and you need to take a "can of Earth" with you anywhere you go.

but what they don't have is the political willpower and credit to start building up the infrastructure

>Generally more expensive than nuclear per unit of energy generated.
who cares? Most homeowners who put solar panels on their roof make their investment back in only about 5 years.

>Battery technology needs to exist but it also needs to be affordable, affordability is a long way away.
Nonsense. The panels themselves are cheaper than the cost to install them on a roof. All of the major solar developers are switching over to battery R&D because panels are already way more efficient than their batteries can store. That's why the Gigafactory exists, It will not only make solar panels endlessly more useful, but also make electric cars a no-brainer.

>lel
Lawrence Livermore National Labs have already built a model which yielded more energy than it cost to make.
blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2014/02/12/scientists-reach-nuclear-fusion-milestone/

>have already started investing in Nuclear and Renewable energy.
In other words, exactly what I said they should be doing. If Arabs can figure it out, why can't white people on Veeky Forums?
>but what about sub-saharan Africa or Southeast Asia?

>motorized vehicles.
But both Africa and the Middle East have motorized vehicles.

Find more when it becomes profitable to start looking again. le

Oil is the second most common liquid on Earth. By the time we run out it won't matter anyway.

>political willpower and credit to start building up the infrastructure
They have already started building Nuclear and Renewable infrastructure.

>nuclear
>real
Pick one.

>Find more when it becomes profitable to start looking again.
Find it where? how much remaining unproven Oil reserves are there in the world? The only place that could have Oil reserves remaining is the Rub Al Khali (Empty Quarter) desert.

solar energy is subsidized by the tax payer the tech still isn't there yet

however I do have hopes for it in the future , that is if general electric doesn't squash it

>They have already started building Nuclear and Renewable infrastructure.
Yes, some of them are reinforcing my point nicely just like the West is, regardless of the geo-economic diehards who think that oil and coal production can be maintained indefinitely. Others are simply too poor to even conceive it.

Fossil fuels have an incredibly wide array of uses beyond simple energy production. Plastic, for example. Peak Oil probably won't be an abrupt event, but will happen gradually (if it hasn't already happened)

>solar energy is subsidized by the tax payer
Literally every type of energy production is subsidized by the tax-payer.

And the reason we do that is because every other country in the world is doing it, and are you willing to let your domestic companies be out-competed by the foreign companies who have the advantage of state sponsorship and state funded R&D?

>In other words, exactly what I said they should be doing. If Arabs can figure it out, why can't white people on Veeky Forums?
Because the West doesn't have as much energy potential as MENA? Forgive me if i'm wrong, but isn't Solar energy basically from the Sun? If there is one thing the Arabian peninsula has never lacked for, it's the fucking Sun.

I think a lot of people in this thread underestimate just how many of the things you use on an average basis require oil. A simple car tire already requires 3/4 barrels.

Oil however, isn't going to be the problem. Its sulphur and in turn ammonia needed for pesticides. Crop protection is partly responsible for our multiplied food output for the last century. Without an alternative many (developing) countries aren't going to be able to feed its population.

Yeah, and that potental energy is going to be taken away from them by the west, just like it and other wealth is being taken away from them, this very moment.

>going to be taken away from them by the west
Not gonna happen. Solar and Nuclear aren't transferable like Oil.

we're all just kind of banking on a room temperature superconductor getting invented before peak oil

>The Arab Gulf states know that Oil won't last forever, and have already started investing in Nuclear and Renewable energy.
using oil money to subsidize their populace is the only thing propping up those countries, what do you think will happen when people stop getting paid by their government because of energy and start having to pay the government for energy?

>Without an alternative many (developing) countries aren't going to be able to feed its population.
and those people will migrate towards europe in a stampede that will make the current refugee crisis look like an absolute joke

and lets not forget about water scarcity due to climate change

you fell for the memes

>Because the West doesn't have as much energy potential as MENA?
Big deal, we get enough to power our homes and autos, and for the really energy intense applications we'll still have nuclear power plants.

You know what we have that they don't? An environment that isn't rapidly becoming an uninhabitable wasteland

solar and wind power are making huge gains in the energy market as prices on the technology have plummeted and the technology itself is vastly improved

>using oil money to subsidize their populace is the only thing propping up those countries, what do you think will happen when people stop getting paid by their government because of energy and start having to pay the government for energy?
Contrary to popular belief. The Arab Gulf states don't get their revenue just from Oil. UAE makes more money from tourism, than it makes from Oil. Saudi Arabia generates an absurd amount of income from Hajj and Umrah money, and that's only going to increase with the Muslim population growth.

>2017
>not riding on Thorium hype train

>An environment that isn't rapidly becoming an uninhabitable wasteland
Mate. Once Climate Change turns Africa, Latin america, and the Middle East into gigantic Ovens. Europe and North America will get their Anuses raped by Immigrants. Don't be happy.

Oh, I'm not happy about it. But just keep in mind that it will have been a totally preventable catastrophe, if only the world could have been made to act earlier.

Why haven't they done it already then?

The ancient enemy

>who cares, when the flood comes my children will be rich enough to live on top of the highest hill

There is suspicion that Saudi Arabia is sitting on several hundred years of oil as they can glut the market for quite some time to try to drive down alternative energy. Doesn't mean we shouldn't buy Tesla's though to stop giving money to their Isis loving asses.

>nuclear energy
>dangerous
More people die each year while installing solar panels than have died in all nuclear accidents combined.

Honestly by the 2040s all the raw materials that make our industrialized lives possible will dry up. World will turn into Stalker.

WE BRONZE AGE POST PETROL AGE COLLAPSE

WHO /SEA PEOPLES/ HERE?

>Because [Catastrophe] Never happened that means [Catastrophe] Will never happen!

This

Even if the world went over to 100% nuclear fission for transport and energy (unlikely), there are only enough uranium reserves for like 20 years or less.

>Me Nuclear is so cheap and efficient and safe!

Yet not a single country that can have it as a primary means has it

Really almonds my milk

Maybe because it's expensive early on, and has negative connotations attatched to it by brain dead hippies.

probably because the UAE exports a lot of the crude to india for refining.
this. Pajeets will finally be a superpower.

literally the only reason why India has problems with nuclear power is because Nordic NGOs prop up bullshit propaganda about nuclear power in india.

German, probably. Sometimes we can't help it.

It likely is. The theory just didn't make it to the high school curricala yet.

It's reneweable over such a long period of time that it's effectively not renewable at the rate it's consumed. It'd probably take many thousands of years to replenish one day's worth of consumption.

Solar in Cali is currently producing too much power for the grid. We've had to shut down a couple of powerplants at least once because there was no point running them at the time. Ideally, we'd implement a sun-and-store infastructure with a heavy emphasis on solar panels in the most reliably sunny areas.

We need to hurry up, though. It's nice that the market has so much momentum right now, hopefully it keeps up.

Fuck off Saudi shill. Nuclear is the safest and one of the cheapest sources of power.

>9/11-tier attack

You mean the United States blowing up one of their own nuclear power plants in a false flag attack to gain domestic support for foreign belligerence?

And fuck you if you don't believe what I just wrote.

>inb4: edgy teen cuck
>inb4: anarchfag

>Saudi shill
Even the fucking Saudis have started building and investing in Nuclear.

Same goes for biomass and geothermal in most applications yet people consider them "renewables."

>Every nuclear power plant is a Chernobyl

I fucking hate people like you

Fortunately, thorium is one of the most common elements in the earth's crust. The Th-232 contained in normal granite is worth as much energy as 25 times the same mass of granite in coal.

Both of you have forgotten about the ultimate resource

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_Resource

here's a hint: the Bronze age didn't end because we ran out of Bronze. It ended because we found ways to do the same things with a more plentiful resource that was previously discarded as junk.

Biomass can grow quickly compared to oil and geothermal energy won't run out until the Earth is eradicated by the expanding sun. It took a long-ass time for the quantity of oil/coal we have to arise under natural conditions, particularly compared to the rate we use it.

Get yo insecure Jesus-lovin ass outta here

>Earth is eradicated by the expanding sun

This will happen?

Eventually.

Stars puff up before they burn out.

A book?
Shit will never last as is that much is obvious, solutions are a lot less people giving an appearance of sustainability, ever more people with lowering living standards, and in everything in between. Man may try and tamper with settings but natural law will probably dictate in the end.

Our star isn't massive enough to produce a nova. It will swell as fusion produces heavier and heavier elements as products until it hits iron and fusion stops. By that time, it will have swollen far enough to consume Mercury and Venus.

I thought it might actually get big enough to cover the earth.

But yeah, either way, it would substantially reduce the number of coal mines.

Dyson sphere

There are a few different options:

1. By the time peak oil occurs, space travel has an unexpected renaissance and we venture forth to colonize new worlds.

2. Alternative energy sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal have been sufficiently developed as to allow sustainable living.

3. Peak oil occurs and there is no plan in place to stop it, but people are able to accept technological regression and revert to an agricultural existence.

4. Peak oil occurs and nobody is able to accept technological regression. The entire world tears itself apart fighting over the last drops of oil. Nukes are fired and death prevails over all.

Oil rationing eventually, I hope. I would say we should be pushing for this now, get civilians into electric vehicles, and keep oil for emergency services and the military. the private sector should be replacing plastics and oil, if not then they can get btfo by their competitors who will adapt.

once we ration oil, then we can worry about developing alternatives at a comfortable pace instead of the procrastination of our current society. conservatives should be renamed 'procrastinators'

the bronze age ended in a complete societal collapse because the supply of bronze was interrupted and climate change caused a torrent of refugees destroying everything in their path

that sounds a lot like our potential future now that I think about it

>but people are able to accept technological regression and revert to an agricultural existence
what about the billions of people facing starvation?

Well, that's what makes option 4 the most likely option IMHO. It would be quite difficult to convince millions of people that they must accept starvation because there simply isn't enough oil left to maintain current population levels. People will turn against each other and fight to the death for every last drop of oil. There will be many genocides, motivated not by race or religion, but rather simply the desire to eliminate competition.

But the difference will be that we saw it coming but couldn't summon up the political willpower to do anything about it. When we tried, the status quo waged a highly successful campaign of disinformation convincing the majority of rubes that Jesus won't let climate change happen and all we need is to drill more oil.

>peak oil

lmao

Eveytime I ask this question I get the same anwer:
>lol, we aren't getting out of oil soon.