+139 Scientists must be under a lot of pressure to find an alternative to oil seeing as it's basically going to not be on earth in 50 years, amirite?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Actually no. There are already plenty of alternative fuels but they are renewable which means there is no money involved. The reason companies try so hard to keep people using oil is because it is limited. It's simple supply and demand. If there is an energy source that can constantly be renewed people wont be willing to pay high dollar for it.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Renewable doesn't mean free. Those giant wind farms and dams, etc aren't free

by Anonymous 11 years ago

It essentially does. After those giant wind farms pay themselves off, they don't cost anything more and will continue to bring in money.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

What about maintence on facilities, the transportation of the energy, the electrical infrastructure, the employees, etc. Also, do you honestly think anyone would just give it away?

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Again. No one said free. I guess I did say "no money involved" but I assumed my obvious hyperbole would not be scrutinised. It does cost. But the price can never really go up. Not exponentially anyway. People aren't going to fight wars over solar and wind energy. And with an unlimited supply the price would be relatively constant.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

I didn't say it was. But it is certainly cheaper than oil. For example Hemp can be made in to fuel to run car engines and is also a carbon neutral fuel source. But due to the low production cost of hemp and how easy it is for the average person grow and maintain (for both gas and many other uses) its use has been criminalised in the US because of big business lobbying.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

This is a very valid point. Also, oil is still pretty abundant. People will only truly start putting a lot of effort in other forms of energy when they can make a lot of money off of it. As of now, people can still get oil at a decent price, so people won't flock to a new form of energy. Once oil becomes much more expensive, larger amounts of people will be willing to switch and therefore, more people will be willing to put in the effort for other forms of energy. So in essence, back to what Scientist said, supply and demand. The demand isn't quite there yet.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

HAHA, PRESSURE!!! Get it? Like oil's made with pressu-- you know what, never mind... wary

by Anonymous 11 years ago

And more importantly, if the current alternatives are insufficient, they won't have electricity for research.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

We aren't just going to run out of oil one day. As oil becomes more and more scarce, the prices of oil will rise and fewer people will buy it. We won't run out, we'll just be forced to stop using it. It's called supply and demand.

by Anonymous 11 years ago