[Kylon]

I'm wondering that. Because we've got lots and lots of coal. We don't like burning it, but we've got plenty of coal.

So we burn coal for a while, then due to environmental political pressure, and the knowledge of our future coal shortage, we increase our nuclear power production. We then mass produce nuclear power plants, and use breeder reactors instead of current models(which really shouldn't be difficult, all you really need to do is change fuel rod compositions), and we've got power for the next 200 years.

So is America really doomed?

True the big SUV days are over, but that's a good thing. I have no interest in seeing how small someones dick is.

If people are hungry, the government can give them food--- in exchange for working in the mines, building and operating reactors, or joining the military or the police. It's not a grand life style, but it's better than starving, and it's better than anarchy.

People go to work in the mines in large numbers and work on breeder reactors, that takes care of our energy crisis. The water crisis is taken care of by rationing and no longer watering our lawns. Once energy becomes cheaply available due to clean nuclear power, we can use desalinization.

We could also regenerate our aquifers by drilling holes in the ground to provide places for hurricane flood waters to fill them up again. The water would be severly polluted, but with treatment could be used throughout the U.S.

The fuel crisis is taken care of initially by coal-oil production, then by electric vehicles with super capacitors.

The environmental problems are the real problems. Those however can be taken care of in due time if the world gets to working on creating an effective iron and phosphorous seeding program. Even if diluted, iron will still increase the growth rate of algae, so arguements that it will not be effective are bs. The real problem is making the iron float, and not go to the bottom of the ocean where it can't be utilized. That can be solved by attaching a hydrophobic molecule(such as oil) to the iron molecule, causing the iron to remain on the surface, available to the algae and other bacteria. Some algae might have to be adapted to they hydrophobic iron in order to be able to utilize it(we might have to grow algae in a container with all nutrients and plenty of energy with the exception of abudant iron, while hitting them with UV rays, this way the algae that develop the means of consuming hydrophobic iron could proliferate rapidly and those that couldn't would be at a disadvantage). Once we created this special algae, we could distribute it with the iron seeding.


So is America really doomed? We may have tough times(like a new great depression) but if we play our cards right we can go through this and come out stronger than before.

[MD]

Will America be fine?

No.

[Cloud9]

America will look like the 1930's. Whether you are fine or not depends on where you are. People made money while others were going broke. My dad lived through it. He said if you were selling babes, booze, bullets or Bibles, you did ok.

[aardvarkthumper]

Considering that the new order peoples plans are to depopulate heavily and soon, no we won't be find at all.
We are going to be massivley depopulated on purpose, precisely because we are running out of fuel, they are not about to let everyone drive their oil out by getting milk from the grocery store, they need the oil for the war machines...
Unfineness is coming sooner rather than later, and the fastest way to depopulate is to accidentally set off the doomsday scenario which Ruska is no reimplemented and which we have had implemented for 50 years.
No, we will not be fine, BEFORE the oil even gets too tight.

[vision-master]

No one knows what tomorrow will bring. Just last night I was watching on TV how teams of engineering students have developed homes of the future that operate off the grid. All ele needs are powered by solar power, including a plug in for ele cars.

[Plantagenet]

France powers 70%+ of its electrical grid from nukes. The grid supports high speed electrical trains between cities, and electric-powered light rail train and subway systems for commuters within cities.

France has a pretty high quality of life.

[jbeckton]

Fine, is a relative term. I think that nuclear power will bridge the gap between FF and alternatives enough to keep the bus rolling.

We will all have to get used to higher enrgy prices though, and that will be a good thing.

[Bas]

coal should be used for iron smelting and nothing else IMO. For posterities sake in regards to stretching the supply over many, many generations and co2 emissions reduction we should use the coal with restraint. I believe the solar "revolution" can unfold much faster than pretty much any study suggests, once it becomes economically competative (and we're close to that economic "tipping point".)


Those are just a few of many things America and the world faces, and IMO you really can't see America in isolation of the world in everything that we have coming to us as a world. It's pretty much "we'll be able to deal with it as humanity as a whole, or ....not at all".

And ofcourse we're not going to be fine; huge climatic and associated environmental problems are unavoidable, as is the biggest economic crisis and all the implications of that. Might we be able to avert total breakdown of (American) society and associated mass die off of the human species?

.....maybe, if you do as I say ; )

[jbeckton]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '
')Have you segmented your own existence and idealized the few good moments? Is the stress of your commute fine? Is a repetitive and meaningless workday fine? Is consumption instead of community a good thing?

[emersonbiggins]

Whatever America will be, it won't be at a lack for work needing to be done. I fear the shiftless (to say nothing of the recently unemployed) among us may not go out with the whimper that we all assume. If nothing else, lock and load, gentlemen.

[jbeckton]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '
')Hey, by the way! Welcome doomer

[jbeckton]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', ' ')What island on what planet did you say you live on?

[bodigami]

No, USA is the country with higher deficit... they're basically the net consumers of the world.

[TheDude]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jbeckton', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', ' ')What island on what planet did you say you live on?

[TheDude]

Wouldn't get your hopes up too high on coal, Kylon:

Peak coal: sooner than you think

[Expertgiraffe]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jbeckton', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '
')Hey, by the way! Welcome doomer

[Expertgiraffe]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jbeckton', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '
')Hey, by the way! Welcome doomer