[larrydallas]

As a high school kid and in my college years I was a frequent visitor to the local wrecking yards just to get stuff for my car at cheap prices cause I was broke. At the time I just thought it was so cool how people were lured to new cars when their old ones were not bad. I thought this was so great for me because I had access to nice automobiles at cheap prices and used parts for pennies on the dollar.

The other day I went to a local yard to get something for a co-worker who is having car trouble. After learning about peak oil my trip there was devastating.

It was a very scary thing to see what our future might be. Looking around all you see are cars which were once someone's pride and joy left out to rot. Without fuel and energy they are nothing but hunks of metal that take up space and deteriorate so slowly that they never really "go away".

This may seem kind of like a "duh" moment but I encourage you to go to a junk yard in your area and really think about this stuff. Looking at automobiles stripped out where parts are littered everywhere and the dash is removed and stuff disassembled will give you trouble sleeping at night.

This was just one yard! YIKES!

It's not just cars....it' trash, tires, old aircraft, ...you name it.

I just feel so badly about living in this illusion that stuff just stops existing once we consume or use it and it is discarded.

Anyway, I have an idea about taking a few people there to show them first hand what the end results of consumption which is out of control are.

These were not all junkers....some people have let classic Mercedes and Jaguars go to the grave. Pretty depressing stuff.

[Barbara]

I agree, dallas.
Last year I went to a junk yard because my hubby was too busy and we were in a hurry to buy a spare piece.
I was shocked.
It looked like a hell to me. It was summer, and there were some immigrants working there with only trousers on, and they were sweating in that dirt and all those rotten cars one over another.
That's the hidden dirty corner of our society, I'm afraid.

[lowem]

Yeah, I've been to the more remote areas of my little island over here. Can't help but feel depressed at the sights. Scrapped cars piled on top of each other (land is rather limited here), long-abandoned railroad lines, sad-looking industrial buildings that have seen better days. The air is different. It's like a different world away from the glitzy shopping belt area.

Oh, and as for the planes larrydallas mentioned - these are just a few among the hundreds of airliners left parked indefinitely in the Mojave desert :



And these are the ones which they are actually trying to maintain and keep in usable condition, "just in case", waiting for a day that most likely will never come, waiting to fly again ...

[stayathomedad]

those planes in the dessert: the scary thing is, that in recent years they have been flown straight from the factory to this airplane junkyard, at the rate of almost 70 a year. companies ordered them

the maker of one of those regional jets, Embrear or so, sees a market of about 5000 of it's jets till 2025. Let's all hope they have enough fuel left to fly them to the dessert....sort of our easter island sculpture garden

[larrydallas]

The jets parked in the Mojave left to rot is very disturbing and if that is not decatent then i don't know what is. How arrogant can one be to use something worth so much and then just discard it.

Granted, aircraft do have a set number of hours they can fly before they have to be dismantled and cared for if they are to fly again. It is just all about money. The level of waste in aircraft need not be what it is.

Developments in technology and design can be applied to existing aircraft if they really wanted them to. Interiors can be replaced, new engies fitted, and upgrades in electronics can all be done on a space frame which is made to last a long time (say 40 years). Have evolutionary progress and not revolutionary where each redesign starts on a clean slate.

BUT....the money would not be so great if rewards like grants and govt. contracts were offered for new platforms. Waste is desinged into the system.

[Guest]

The airplanes in the desert as our version of Easter Island is very disturbing.

Let's pretned Aliens are real for a moment. Perhaps the day will come when they visit us and ask, "How did you primitive savages get these craft into the desert?"

"They walked across the desert" will be our likely response.

-East-Side Easter Islander

[Yamaha_R6]

For all you doomers... In some cases you can buy an old plane like that, and turn into a home. If you think the world is ending... dig a big hole.... Drop the plane into it. Burry it leaving a tunnel for you to get access to your plane, and then grow grops on top. Ohh.. and you can use the massive storage tanks in the plane to hold water and fuel, and the luggage compartment can be used to store supplies. Aircraft work very well as shelters because they are super stong, will not rot or be eatin by termites, and last forever.

You will need some lighting though because it gets dark underground, maybe some windmills?

If you dont think bandits are going to come rape and kill you... you could be daring and risk putting it above ground! HAHAHAAAHA.