The World Needs Oil
Found this on one of my MySpace bulletins :
Just wanted to open a few eyes toward this oil issue:
-It takes the energy equivalent to 20 barrels of oil to construct the average car. This includes "hybrid" cars.-The average PC will consume 10 times its weight in fossil fuels during construction.-The average meal travels 1500 miles in the United States to get to your plate
-Hydrogen fuel cells require platinum, silver and copper -- all materials that must be mined, refined and manufactured in oil-powered plants. Platinum is in a permanent state of scarcity.-To produce a ton of copper requires 112 million BTUs or the equivalent of 17.8 barrels of oil. The energy cost comparison of aluminum is twenty times higher.-According to ExxonMobil, the amount of energy distributed by a single gas station in a single day is equivalent to the amount of energy that would be produced by four Manhattan sized city blocks of solar equipment. With 17,000 gas stations just in the US alone, you don't need higher math to realize that solar power is incapable of meeting our urgent need for a new energy source that - like oil - is dense, affordable, and transportable.-A single hydrogen fuel cell requires apporoximately 20-50 grams of platinum. Let's say we want to replace a quarter of the world's petro powered cars with hydrogen fuel cell powered cars. 20-50 grams x 210,000,000 fuel cells = 4.2 billion - 10.5 billion grams of platinum. World platinum production is only about 240 million grams per year, most of which is already earmarked for thousands of indespensible industrial processes.-In 2003, the US consumed 98 quadrillion BTU's of energy. A whopping .171 quadrillion came from solar and wind combined. Do the math and you will see (.171/98), and you will see that a total of less than one-sixth of one percent of our energy appetite was satisfied with solar and wind combined. Thus, just to derive a paltry 2-3 percent of our current energy demands from solar and wind, we would need to double the percentage derived from solar/wind, then double it again, then double it again, and then double it again.-It would cost $350,000,000,000,000 to replace half of our current automotive fleet (700 million cars worldwide) with hydrogen fuel cell powered cars. That ignores trucks, boats and planes.-It takes 11 acres to grow enough corn to fuel one autombile with ethanol for 10,000 miles, or about a year or driving, the same amount of land to feed seven people for the same amount of time. To power all our cars with ethanol, we would need to cover 97% of our land with corn.So you see, oil affects far more than your trip to work. It is what powers our entire industrial complex right down to the two-legged SUVs we call humans. I am just glad the President is at least speaking publicly about it, be it pandering or not.
Just wanted to open a few eyes toward this oil issue:
-It takes the energy equivalent to 20 barrels of oil to construct the average car. This includes "hybrid" cars.-The average PC will consume 10 times its weight in fossil fuels during construction.-The average meal travels 1500 miles in the United States to get to your plate
-Hydrogen fuel cells require platinum, silver and copper -- all materials that must be mined, refined and manufactured in oil-powered plants. Platinum is in a permanent state of scarcity.-To produce a ton of copper requires 112 million BTUs or the equivalent of 17.8 barrels of oil. The energy cost comparison of aluminum is twenty times higher.-According to ExxonMobil, the amount of energy distributed by a single gas station in a single day is equivalent to the amount of energy that would be produced by four Manhattan sized city blocks of solar equipment. With 17,000 gas stations just in the US alone, you don't need higher math to realize that solar power is incapable of meeting our urgent need for a new energy source that - like oil - is dense, affordable, and transportable.-A single hydrogen fuel cell requires apporoximately 20-50 grams of platinum. Let's say we want to replace a quarter of the world's petro powered cars with hydrogen fuel cell powered cars. 20-50 grams x 210,000,000 fuel cells = 4.2 billion - 10.5 billion grams of platinum. World platinum production is only about 240 million grams per year, most of which is already earmarked for thousands of indespensible industrial processes.-In 2003, the US consumed 98 quadrillion BTU's of energy. A whopping .171 quadrillion came from solar and wind combined. Do the math and you will see (.171/98), and you will see that a total of less than one-sixth of one percent of our energy appetite was satisfied with solar and wind combined. Thus, just to derive a paltry 2-3 percent of our current energy demands from solar and wind, we would need to double the percentage derived from solar/wind, then double it again, then double it again, and then double it again.-It would cost $350,000,000,000,000 to replace half of our current automotive fleet (700 million cars worldwide) with hydrogen fuel cell powered cars. That ignores trucks, boats and planes.-It takes 11 acres to grow enough corn to fuel one autombile with ethanol for 10,000 miles, or about a year or driving, the same amount of land to feed seven people for the same amount of time. To power all our cars with ethanol, we would need to cover 97% of our land with corn.So you see, oil affects far more than your trip to work. It is what powers our entire industrial complex right down to the two-legged SUVs we call humans. I am just glad the President is at least speaking publicly about it, be it pandering or not.
