The NEW China Syndrome

[B_Maverick]

In a nutshell, here is how I see it...

1. China is clearly the number one source of cheap labor for the United States and many other countries. The benefit of this is that I can buy most anything I want at a very affordable price.

2. As a result of supplying the United States with nearly every product it needs, China has becoming increasingly more wealthy. The people are more wealthy, and can now afford to drive automobiles.

3. Consequently, China is now the second largest user of energy on the planet, and is the driving force behind skyrocketting oil prices.

So...here are some options...

If we all decide to boycott Chinese made products, the wealth of China may decrease, and oil prices could someday come back down. The downside of this is that my patio furniture costs me $800, instead of $300. Shoes cost me $75 instead of $19.99...etc.

Well..frankly...this is unrealistic, in my opinion. Boycotts rarely work, and national protectionism is not a great policy.

Another option...

There are a couple of new forms of alternative fuel...ethanol from corn, biodiesel from...well...corn. So instead of running our cars on gasoline, we could just use all the corn on the planet and let China have all the oil it wants.

I'm thinking this is a really bad option, because people need to eat and if all the farmland is used for growing corn...well...do I need to spell out the dismal future of that?

A third option...

This one makes good sense to me...

According to a scientist I saw on the History Channel, there is enough "wind" on the planet to provide 100% of the energy needed to supply the entire world. That is to say ALL energy..electricity, auto fuel, etc.

It sounds reasonable, especially since Holland is currently supplying 25% of their national energy needs from wind power. Anyone who has been to California has probably seen the wind farms along Interstate 10....etc.

Wind is pretty cheap...and the electricity generated from wind can be used to make hydrogen from seawater. Hydrogen is the smartest fuel we could use to run automobiles.

Please post your thoughts...this is a problem that affects everyone!

[florin]

Man, that´s a lot of info right there..Hope I´ll read it someday.

[Mr.White]

The alternative fuel is an option but that bioshit smell like hell!

[B_Maverick]

Originally Posted by florin

Man, that´s a lot of info right there..Hope I´ll read it someday.

Yeah...it's a bad habit of mine. I guess i don't get out of the house enough.

i think a VAN will pull up to your house in like 20 mins and 3 men in black suits are going to jump out and take you..... your messing around with some serious sh1t by posting this kind of stuff....

[Antonio]

energy from wind is much more expensive, hopefully new technologies will make it cheaper one day but until then it's all about oil, baby

[Buzz]

get to the moon and mine helium-3

10 tons of the shit provide energy to supply a huge country like USA or China or Russia for about a year.

[tblake]

I think the only way to go is Bio-diesel. That is the only sustainable fuel source that could power the US and we could regrow year after year.

BUT we would have to figure out how to grow Algae in massive quantities first. The yield per acre of biodiesel for regular crops isn't enough to actually help the oil problem. But algae grows so incredibly fast that if we can genetically modify it to contain more oil and understand how to grow it better, we could have the next fuel source for the world.

[u-Bob]

[jalami]

Wind power is problematic because it is expensive and is not constant, and while we are good at generating energy, we really suck at storing it (ultracapacitors and the like are making short-term energy storage a real possibility in the future though).

Think of it this way -- if we had lots of electric cars and limited their recharging time to the twilight hours, it wouldn't be a huge issue for the power companies since they don't have much energy demand at midnight, and most of their generation is constant, such as hydroelectric, with much of it wasted.

Anyway the main point is that there are 3 base power generation technologies that generate a lot of power, fairly cheaply, and on a constant basis: hydroelectric, fossil fuels (coal or oil-fired plants), and nuclear. Of the 3, nuclear is the best, especially if you reprocess spent fuel instead of hiding it in the desert like they do now. For those of you screaming about nuclear waste, it's only "waste" because we're not allowed to re-use it, by a Carter-era law. A few countries have breeder reactors that are generating electricity using spent nuclear fuel, which has tons of juice in it. China will be next, once petroleum gets more pricey and their ridiculously huge Three Gorges Dam isn't enough, look for them to come out with gigantic Soviet-era reactors and nuclear re-processing.

Anyway, the real reason why China is moving so far ahead is that in a way, their political system is superior to ours. They can do plenty of things without having to worry about people complaining (try building a big hydro dam in the US that displaces 2 million people and buries precious historical artifacts underwater). In that sense, in the short-term China is going to grow faster than us and out-do us, but their political system won't last forever, eventually people will get tired of being oppressed, as is true in all heavy-handed governments, including the US if they continue the way they're going.

[B_Maverick]

jalami - Thank you for your well thought out comments. I like seeing posts with some thought put into them.

[amateurcanada]

Our here in Canada we have a super large bank of wind generated power stations located in Prince Edward Island. Whats odd is cancer rates near these windmills are almost double lol. So not sure how healthy it is or if this is even related.

On another negative note lol, hydrogen is one not to be messed with, we all know the hydrogen bomb - just imagine the damage an improperly created car could create.

[spunkmaster]

3. Consequently, China is now the second largest user of energy on the planet, and is the driving force behind skyrocketting oil prices.

Last week I think the news said they became number 1

[DaddyHalbucks]

You forgot to mention that China is stealing more military technology than ever before.

Also, China's energy demands mean they are burning coal like crazy, which adds to global pollution. Our lakes have mercury that comes from Chinese coal fired industry. It takes 5-10 days for Chinese air pollution to reach the US.

[CyberHustler]

[p1mpdogg]

as soon as renewable energy hits the market on a large scale, i am going to be fucking rich.

lets hurry this shit up.

[DWB]

Originally Posted by jalami

Wind power is problematic because it is expensive and is not constant, and while we are good at generating energy, we really suck at storing it (ultracapacitors and the like are making short-term energy storage a real possibility in the future though).

Think of it this way -- if we had lots of electric cars and limited their recharging time to the twilight hours, it wouldn't be a huge issue for the power companies since they don't have much energy demand at midnight, and most of their generation is constant, such as hydroelectric, with much of it wasted.

Anyway the main point is that there are 3 base power generation technologies that generate a lot of power, fairly cheaply, and on a constant basis: hydroelectric, fossil fuels (coal or oil-fired plants), and nuclear. Of the 3, nuclear is the best, especially if you reprocess spent fuel instead of hiding it in the desert like they do now. For those of you screaming about nuclear waste, it's only "waste" because we're not allowed to re-use it, by a Carter-era law. A few countries have breeder reactors that are generating electricity using spent nuclear fuel, which has tons of juice in it. China will be next, once petroleum gets more pricey and their ridiculously huge Three Gorges Dam isn't enough, look for them to come out with gigantic Soviet-era reactors and nuclear re-processing.

Anyway, the real reason why China is moving so far ahead is that in a way, their political system is superior to ours. They can do plenty of things without having to worry about people complaining (try building a big hydro dam in the US that displaces 2 million people and buries precious historical artifacts underwater). In that sense, in the short-term China is going to grow faster than us and out-do us, but their political system won't last forever, eventually people will get tired of being oppressed, as is true in all heavy-handed governments, including the US if they continue the way they're going.

Excellent post.