<< Ludwig I am totally against bull sh1t. Peak oil is bull sh1t… >>

Dear o dear Hasbeen. You can’t assert that! You don’t know! And when we don’t know but can see a high likelihood, what should we do?

Err on the side of caution and plan accordingly.

See, this is the fundamental flaw in your whole argument – your assertion of things that you just simply can’t assert.

You should be a sceptic or a neutralist. Denialism makes no sense!!

You didn’t answer my query about population. Again, it seems that you can see the folly in ever-increasing population and hence presumably in the ever-increasing demand for all manner of resources, but you can’t or won’t see the other side of the equation – the non-increasing if not declining supply of essential resources….and the changing economics as they become harder to obtain or at least considerably more expensive.

Peter Mac, thanks very much. I’ll have to study all of that before offering further comment. Cheers.

Where is everyone?? This thread’s gone all quiet!

Peter Mac, can I ask you; do you think the people of Australia are getting a fair and reasonable return from our mineral resources?

Thanks for your comprehensive replies to my questions, but I’m still finding it hard to put into perspective.

I feel the with the wealth generated by the current level of mining, on top of many years of boom times, should be rapidly taking care of all the things that plague us. Everything that needs big expenditure to improve it should be well on the way to significant improvement, and really should have been years ago.

But this is far from the case!

So what on earth is going on?

Surely one of the major reasons for this is that we are not getting a high enough return from our mineral wealth, and the mining companies are getting too much. Way too much!

No

I agree with Gregory McDaven.

Ludwig old mate, big oil, & the Ruskies are forming partnerships to exploit shale oil deposits in Russia that are about 1,000 times larger than the US shale deposits.

They anticipate this reserve could supply all current & future global demand for 100 years.

The deep oil now being tapped off South America is of near similar proportions.

We have enough oil in central Qld to supply all our needs for a similar length of time.

I have never bothered to think about the reasons we let big oil refuse to buy the Rundle oil, once it was proved viable at less than $70 a barrel. It does have signs of conspiracy, when looked at in conjunction with the impending closure of all our oil refineries.

Looking at that too deeply would probably make me cranky, & give me a headache. I don't have enough years left to spend any in such useless activity.

So mate, I'm not talking anything that is not well known, if you bother to look.

I just picked up my 32 year old sports car from the body shop, after a complete repaint. This is the second refurbishment in 12 years, & over 60,000Km, since I first restored her. In that time she has cost me no depreciation, & about $6000 total in maintenance, including this paint job. That also includes fitting airconditioning when I got too damn old to to drive comfortably without it.

$500 a year to drive a beautiful old car, now that's what I call conservation.