[Leanan]

Earth's natural wealth: an audit

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ') "I get excited every time I see a street cleaner," says Hazel Prichard. It's what they collect in their sacks that gets her juices flowing, because the grime and litter they sweep up off the streets is laced with traces of platinum, one of the world's rarest and most expensive metals. The catalytic converters that keep exhaust pollutants from cars, trucks and buses down to an acceptable level all use platinum, and over the years it is slowly but steadily lost through these vehicles' exhaust pipes. Prichard, a geologist at the University of Cardiff in the UK, reckons that tonnes of the stuff is being sprayed out onto the world's streets and highways every year, and she is hunting for places where it is concentrated enough to be worth recovering. One of her prime targets is the waste containers in road-sweeping machines.

This could prove lucrative, but Prichard is motivated by something far more significant than the chance of a quick buck. Platinum is a vital component not only of catalytic converters but also of fuel cells - and supplies are running out. It has been estimated that if all the 500 million vehicles in use today were re-equipped with fuel cells, operating losses would mean that all the world's sources of platinum would be exhausted within 15 years. Unlike with oil or diamonds, there is no synthetic alternative: platinum is a chemical element, and once we have used it all there is no way on earth of getting any more. What price then pollution-free cities?

[yesplease]

We only have 10^35 years before protons may start to decay.
I don't think heavy fuel oils will impact the price of extraction that much. High prices would kill personal automotive demand way before they'll impinge on heavy industry in the same way.

[shortonoil]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he reality [is] that PO will seriously inhibit large scale mining of all 'bulk' commodities and virtually all specialty metals. At least some part of the exploration/development/mining cycle is critically dependent on 'cheap' oil. Even in large coal open pits, where draglines and face shovels are electric, trucks and mobile plants use diesel - and a lot ot it. So 'geologically' things aren't too bad for most (or all?) non-fuel commodities, this will be irrelevant thanks to PO.

[dissident]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')f China decided to cut off the supply, that would create a big risk of conflict, says Reller.

[EnergyUnlimited]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('yesplease', 'W')e only have 10^35 years before protons may start to decay.
I don't think heavy fuel oils will impact the price of extraction that much. High prices would kill personal automotive demand way before they'll impinge on heavy industry in the same way.

[BastardSquad]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dissident', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')f China decided to cut off the supply, that would create a big risk of conflict, says Reller.

[EnergyUnlimited]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dissident', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')f China decided to cut off the supply, that would create a big risk of conflict, says Reller.

[shortonoil]

80% of China’s GDP is exports, and 50% of those go the US. When the US melts down so does China; then China has 1.3 billion people that it can’t feed!

[dissident]

It is clear that China depends on exports and the USA for its economic well being. So why all the recent anti-China hysterics in the US media (which takes its queue from the leadership)? The Chinese did not threaten explicitly or implicitly to cut off the US supply. One gets the impression that xenophobes are in charge of the US who treat their paranoid delusions as reality. Trade is the exchange of goods, not the extortion of goods with threats of conflict.

[shortonoil]

dissident said:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t is clear that China depends on exports and the USA for its economic well being. So why all the recent anti-China hysterics in the US media (which takes its queue from the leadership)? The Chinese did not threaten explicitly or implicitly to cut off the US supply. One gets the impression that xenophobes are in charge of the US who treat their paranoid delusions as reality. Trade is the exchange of goods, not the extortion of goods with threats of conflict.

[yesplease]

nvm pm'd