Amazing - the brand new 997

[kandrathe]

Simply put, we shouldn't be complaining. In fact, if we want to find the real solution to the oncoming oil/gas crisis, we should continue to raise prices so that the automobile companies start developing that darned hydrogen fuel cell car already :-p...

I was looking into hydrogen fuel recently, and I found that the current hydrogen economy is also based on cracking petroleum. Doh. There is some research at the university here that has developed a very efficient method of generating hydrogen from ethanol, but getting the ethanol still requires the petroleum for cultivation, fertilizers, etc.

Ok, so two problems. The first is to eliminate the dependance on hydrocarbon fuels in vehicles. We need to convert not only commuter vehicles, but also our tractors, combines, etc to hydrogen fuel. Electricity generation from fuel oil, or coal is also a huge problem, and in my opinion was a short sighted decision. Again, this is not popular, but my opinion is that we should convert all electrical power generation to nuclear. Solving the waste storage problem, and moving to fusion reactors are also important and requires more attention.

The second, what to do about petroleum based fertilizer? My answer is that I'm afraid that the world is going to need to get over their fear of genetically modified plants. Yes, do the studies to insure they are safe for human consumption. Focus also on preventing the dispersion of GM plant DNA into the natural gene pool. A significant research effort in genomics is to develop hardy plants with large yields that need little or no hebicides and fertilizers. This makes food crops cultivation hydrocarbon free, cheaper to grow, and eliminates the damaging runoff of nutrients or herbicides into streams, rivers and lakes.

The answers are out there, just politically unpalatable for many.