One of the financial wizards from MSNBC mentioned on the NBC news tonight that he expected gas to be $5 to $6 a gallon by August and how he thought a whole lot more people were going to be taking a bus soon because almost no one would be able to afford to fly soon.
I was thinking a lot especially after I saw the documentary "A Crude Awakening" available at netflix for rent. I realized that 5, $10, $15, and even $20 or $50 a gallon was inevitable. It is just a matter of when. At present I believe within 10 years or 15 at most, oil will be too expensive for anything but for making plastics. Even that might not be practical then. Airlines have to find a fuel not made of oil. Maybe hydrogen from water. Maybe they can fill their tanks with water and break it apart as needed and convert their airplanes to hydrogen or somehow multifuel ehanol, hydrogen or whatever is available. This might mean the difference between airlines staying in business or going bankrupt en masse.
Where electricity is cheap enough(where there is enough wind,water dam powered, solar, coal or nuclear) electric trains can transport people and plug in their electric cars. Where it is not, cheap coal powered steam trains(or coal to steam to electric) can transport people once again en masse. Maybe people can put their electric cars on trains to their destination knowing that they can only drive about 300 miles or so on a charge.
Once again, the nations and areas of the world that have a cheap source(or sources) of energy from now on will BE the most advanced nations of the world and the greatest economic powerhouses. Those that don't won't.
Everything is changing people worldwide. For all of us it is: "quickly change to a cheap enough energy basis that works and is efficient or pass out of existence". This appears to be the only real solution for us worldwide.
The way that the United States geared up for World War II we now have to gear up for changes away from oil to other cheaper sources of energy. If we can do this the best and the fastest we will stay preeminent and on top but if we get bogged down in oil and gas and diesel driven cars, trucks and infrastructure we will be LEFT BEHIND by other parts of the world that will simply solve the problem as efficiently and as cheaply as possible. It's completely up to us what happens!
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