The Cost of 4x4s

[sasguru]

There are some 'furure-historians' (I know!) who have postulated that might just come to pass. Even without the issues around climate, there is the possibility that energy supplies may not be resolvable in, say, 100 yrs time. Another nice theeory is that the imbalances in the global economy are unsustainable and will lead to a collapse in the global or economy or we do what we alwaysdo and have a big old war.

Either way, its back to sefdom for th lot of us....or not as th case may be.

Doomed I tell yer ...
Or is it boomed?
I never can tell.

[dang65]

Do we actually produce any oil at all ourselves (Britain?)

I mean, if we didn't have access to imported oil then we might still get by fine with electric cars powered by nuclear power stations and that, but can you make a fighter jet fly without fuel which comes from oil (I presume)? I can imagine a time when complete mastery of the skies could go to the only countries which produce their own oil. The rest of us would be reduced to throwing stones at them or something.

[Troll]

Do we actually produce any oil at all ourselves (Britain?)

I mean, if we didn't have access to imported oil then we might still get by fine with electric cars powered by nuclear power stations and that, but can you make a fighter jet fly without fuel which comes from oil (I presume)? I can imagine a time when complete mastery of the skies could go to the only countries which produce their own oil. The rest of us would be reduced to throwing stones at them or something.

Wouldn't synthetic oil help?
One form of synthetic oil is that manufactured using the Fischer-Tropsch process which converts carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and methane into liquid hydrocarbons of various forms. This process was developed and used extensively in World War II by Germany, which had limited access to crude oil supplies.

[DodgyAgent]

There are some 'furure-historians' (I know!) who have postulated that might just come to pass. Even without the issues around climate, there is the possibility that energy supplies may not be resolvable in, say, 100 yrs time. Another nice theeory is that the imbalances in the global economy are unsustainable and will lead to a collapse in the global or economy or we do what we alwaysdo and have a big old war.

Either way, its back to sefdom for th lot of us....or not as th case may be.

You can tell when people are getting too old, they look back rather than forward, yet they dont look at lessons that History has given us.

For example,

war is unlikely between western democracies as they are all now interdependent upon each other economically. Even Russia and China are part of the economic "interdependent" club.

secondly people have an historical knack of evolving. Your views Rantor have to based upon assumptions that technology remains as it is. you should be wise enough to realise that this is not true.

[dang65]

Wouldn't synthetic oil help?
One form of synthetic oil is that manufactured using the Fischer-Tropsch process which converts carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and methane into liquid hydrocarbons of various forms. This process was developed and used extensively in World War II by Germany, which had limited access to crude oil supplies.

I confess I know nothing at all about this subject. Just wondering if that kind of fuel is capable of powering a warplane.

[VectraMan]

There are some 'furure-historians' (I know!) who have postulated that might just come to pass. Even without the issues around climate, there is the possibility that energy supplies may not be resolvable in, say, 100 yrs time. Another nice theeory is that the imbalances in the global economy are unsustainable and will lead to a collapse in the global or economy or we do what we alwaysdo and have a big old war.

Either way, its back to sefdom for th lot of us....or not as th case may be.

I think the Soylent Green vision of the future is the most accurate. So many billions of people that there's massive food and housing shortages.

[gingerjedi]

Do we actually produce any oil at all ourselves (Britain?)

I mean, if we didn't have access to imported oil then we might still get by fine with electric cars powered by nuclear power stations and that, but can you make a fighter jet fly without fuel which comes from oil (I presume)? I can imagine a time when complete mastery of the skies could go to the only countries which produce their own oil. The rest of us would be reduced to throwing stones at them or something.

Never heard of the north sea then? I know it's all in the hands of multinationals but aren't they all?

As for the second part, see: War on terror.

[Troll]

Didn't they try to run planes on nuclear power back in the 50's?

[oraclesmith]

Well, I've got an old Discovery and it's great. It will last for years, it costs me less in fuel than many cars will cost me in depreciation each year and it's relatively cheap to maintain because it's not exactly cutting edge technology so I can use non-franchise garages.

It's BMW, Mercedes, Volvo, Porsche and others that have given 4x4's a bad name. These are expensive, prestige makes whether you buy a 4x4 model or not, so obviously the parts are going to cost a lot and the people that drive them will be envied and stereotyped by the general public. The gas guzzling Bentley/Beemer/Merc saloons etc seem to have escaped the wraith of the greens because the X5 brigade are such an easy target for hostility.

Let's face it, most of the hostility and protests about 4x4's are confined to West London, especially around schools.

[gingerjedi]

Didn't they try to run planes on nuclear power back in the 50's?

Yes, they shielded the cockpit with lead and only used old pilots... hmm I wonder why?

They also had plans to blast a giant weapons platform into space, someone had the great idea of using a series of small nuclear blasts to propel it up there.