[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'J')oules, BTUs, Quads—Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
By Harry Goldstein and William Sweet

The fact that energy sources and uses are stated in so many different kinds of terms is increasingly seen as not merely an annoyance but as a serious impediment to public understanding of critical choices. In an effort to get matters onto a more intuitive, citizen-friendly basis, a number of experts have hit on the convenient fact that the world at present consumes about 1 cubic mile of oil (CMO) per year. Among these experts are Ed Kinderman and Hewitt Crane at SRI International, in Menlo Park, Calif., who are preparing a book for Oxford University Press that will be built around the idea of normalizing all energy units to 1 CMO (4.17 cubic kilometers).

[Specop_007]

Jesus. I hadnt realized 3 Gorges was that freaking big.

[MD]

The volume of all humanity would fit within that same cubic mile.

That's right, all 6 billion +

[emersonbiggins]

I'm still trying to figure out if "4 Three Gorges each year for 50 years" = "200 Three Gorges in 1 year". I can only assume that it does.

[TheDude]

Hasn't everyone seen the cubic mile by now? 1000 barrels per second, baby.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'J')esus. I hadnt realized 3 Gorges was that freaking big.

[Ludi]

I actually hadn't seen this graphic before.

Scary as hell!

[joeltrout]

I am having problems visualizing one cubic mile of oil.

How many barrels is in a cubic mile of oil?

joeltrout

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('joeltrout', 'I') am having problems visualizing one cubic mile of oil.

How many barrels is in a cubic mile of oil?

joeltrout

[MD]

a cubic mile is a little over 26 billion barrels (42 gallons/barrel)

[Jack]

That is a superb graphic. Thank you.

And the source - IEEE Spectrum - is a good one.

[MD]

So then; by the time we get down to 1/2 cubic mile of annual oil production (say in ten to fifteen years) we'll need in service:

coal plants 520
3 gorges dam projects 20
wind turbines 164,250
nuke plants 260
solar arrays 457,600,000

Seems doable! Everyone grab their pickax and shovel! There's work to be done!

[grampybone]

Wow, what an eye opening graphic! Thanks for posting it!

[emersonbiggins]

Hey, Aaron : T-shirt. This. Now. What say you?

[RedStateGreen]

Oil is some powerful stuff!

[BigTex]

One way of looking at that is that we should just abandon all non-oil related sources of energy and go ahead and start drilling at the south pole, north pole, do the tar sludge thing, and whatever else we can figure out to find more oil.

It sort of makes everything else look silly.

One graphic I would like to see would be the size of the cube of corn it would take to create a cubic mile of ethanol.

That would be one big-ass cube of corn!

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TheDude', 'H')asn't everyone seen the cubic mile by now? 1000 barrels per second, baby.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'J')esus. I hadnt realized 3 Gorges was that freaking big.

[smallpoxgirl]

If 1 cubic mile is 1 year of consumption, I don't get why they timed all those other things over 50 years. To match the oil energy we consume each year, you'd have to multiply all those other things by 50.

5000 coal plants seems achievable. Even 500,000,000 solar panels doesn't seem impossible. I believe that's about the current number of cars on earth, and a solar panel is a lot easier to make than a car.

[hardtootell]

I did some calculations based on that IEEE spectrum equivalencies chart and came to some surprising and encouraging conclusions. Now correct me if I am wrong here but when I look up the annual added capacity of Wind (20 Gw) and Solar (aprox 12Gw) (wikipedia) it appears to be able to replace 97% of a 3% (assumed annual) depletion in oil!
No need to flame me, I am no cornicopian. It just looks like a soft landing is more possible. Although no supply/demand model I can come up with explains the recent run up in oil prices.

[BigTex]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('hardtootell', 'I') did some calculations based on that IEEE spectrum equivalencies chart and came to some surprising and encouraging conclusions. Now correct me if I am wrong here but when I look up the annual added capacity of Wind (20 Gw) and Solar (aprox 12Gw) (wikipedia) it appears to be able to replace 97% of a 3% (assumed annual) depletion in oil!
No need to flame me, I am no cornicopian. It just looks like a soft landing is more possible. Although no supply/demand model I can come up with explains the recent run up in oil prices.