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Only about 7% of oil isn't burned. So you'd have to grow the plastics, asphalt, etc. industries by 10x to make up for the 2/3rd stranded assets. That's a lot of
by diafygi 10y ago
Only about 7% of oil isn't burned. So you'd have to grow the plastics, asphalt, etc. industries by 10x to make up for the 2/3rd stranded assets. That's a lot of plastic spaceships and parking lots.
http://energy.gov/articles/hows-and-whys-replacing-whole-barrel http://energy.gov/articles/hows-and-whys-replacing-whole-bar...
- toomuchtodo 10y agoAnd parking lots are going to take a huge hit regardless, with some mix of population decline in first world countries (less cars overall), self driving cars (again, less cars), and populations continuing to migrate to major population centers (mass transit > cars).
- Cyph0n 10y agoMore parking lots but not roads? An I missing something?
- Animats 10y agoIt's not like we have to use all the oil in the planet this century. Saving oil for making plastics and other useful products makes sense.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- wastedhours 10y agoInteresting question, is it better to mine it now and store it, or tear down the industry and rebuild it if we come to need it again in the future?
- wiz21c 10y agoI once read an article explaining that storing oil is definitely not easy. IIRC, it was super toxic, abrasive, could easily be set on fire, and of course, super valuable => you need almost a bunker to store it...
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- nickjarboe 10y agoOil is already a boom/bust business. Leaving oil and in the geological formations where it sits is probably the best way to store it.
- Jedd 10y agoI think Tim Flannery (though probably not the first or only one to) proposed the benefits of retaining a huge volume or oil & coal in case we ever need to thoughtfully kick-start a greenhouse effect.
- mrfusion 10y agoThere are more potent and shorter term greenhouse gases we could produce for that purpose.