G7 leaders agree to phase out fossil fuels end of century

G7 leaders agree to phase out fossil fuels end of century

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Escort Si-130

Original Poster:

3,269 posts

179 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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It could be the end of the piston as we know it. Coming up to 2100, this forum may end up being generator heads or fuel cell heads.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/g7-leaders-agr...

HustleRussell

24,602 posts

159 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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My initial response was that 85 years is longer than I thought I'd give it.

Then I realised that it'd probably take that long to acheive development and widespread adoption of alternative technologies for heavy shipping, air travel, haulage and power generation- presumably combustion engine powered cars will have long since gone out of production.

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

125 months

Tuesday 9th June 2015
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Do you think some kind of global agreement made in 1915 could have stood up to, or predicted, developments and changes throughout the 20th century?

Mikeyjae

906 posts

105 months

Wednesday 10th June 2015
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So the only way this can be achieved is Electric or Hydrogen cars. The electric cars need to be charged so unless Wind, Hydro or Solar power stations become much better at producing electricity then it is down to Nuclear. Then however there is a the problem of all the protesters complaining against nuclear. Im all for Nuclear power and the other forms but nobody will ever be happy with the end result.

When I was at school just shy of 20 years ago we where told that by 2045, fossil fuels would of all been extracted. I think I got lied too. Saying that thou the combustion engine has only really been around for the last 100 years so god knows what sort of energy would of been developed in the next 85 years.

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

125 months

Wednesday 10th June 2015
quotequote all
Mikeyjae said:
So the only way this can be achieved is Electric or Hydrogen cars. The electric cars need to be charged so...
...and Hydrogen needs electricity to split water into H2 and O2 - which are then recombined to generate electricity...? No, perpetual motion hasn't been discovered yet. More losses, more electricity.

All of these are just ways of transferring energy from a primary source (solar, nuclear, fossil, wave, wind) to where it is required for conversion into kinetic energy. There are various losses and inefficiencies in every step along the way. We can use batteries as temporary storage, we can use hydrogen, we can use compressed air. They're just ways of converting electricity into stored energy.

Mikeyjae said:
When I was at school just shy of 20 years ago we where told that by 2045, fossil fuels would of all been extracted. I think I got lied too.
"lied to" is a bit strong. That was the genuinely-held belief at the time. We were running out of oil. Since then, there's been more sources found and - more importantly - ways of getting at what was previously uneconomic/unfeasible to extract.

Foppo

2,344 posts

123 months

Saturday 13th June 2015
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There will always be new ideas and better way to do things.Some bright spark somewhere will be working on something which will benefits us all.

Let's get writ of people starving of shortage of food first.Clean drinking water a sustainable decent live for the poorest people.Just my vieuw on it.

loose cannon

6,028 posts

240 months

Monday 22nd June 2015
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I was taught in geography in the late 80's that world oil would run out by the millennium
And we would all be driving Sinclair c5's big brother that hadn't been made yet
Oh and the Amazon rainforest would be almost gone due to McDonald's cattle ranches
Well they were almost right with that one

esxste

3,664 posts

105 months

Tuesday 23rd June 2015
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Fusion power is the big breakthrough that we're looking out for. It's possible, its being worked on. Once we have fusion generators, electricity will be abundant and cleanly generated.

Roll on the post-scarcity world.

QuantumTokoloshi

4,161 posts

216 months

Tuesday 23rd June 2015
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esxste said:
Fusion power is the big breakthrough that we're looking out for. It's possible, its being worked on. Once we have fusion generators, electricity will be abundant and cleanly generated.

Roll on the post-scarcity world.
We already get 99.9% of our power from fusion. wink

robinessex

11,046 posts

180 months

Saturday 15th August 2015
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It's easy. The ONLY constant energy sourse that comes without any nasty side effects is the SUN. You know, that big shiny thing in the sky that comes out 1 day per year, usually in July, for summer. Solar thermal power plants they are called. Info here:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_tower

GroundEffect

13,815 posts

155 months

Thursday 20th August 2015
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robinessex said:
It's easy. The ONLY constant energy sourse that comes without any nasty side effects is the SUN. You know, that big shiny thing in the sky that comes out 1 day per year, usually in July, for summer. Solar thermal power plants they are called. Info here:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_tower
Except it's only 50% of the day, on average?

There is no constant renewable sources apart from geothermal. Wind and tide are good as far as we go in the UK -> what use would solar towers be to us in winter? Edinburgh gets 7 hours daylight in December with Inverness getting 6:30!


robinessex

11,046 posts

180 months

Thursday 20th August 2015
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They would be scattered around the globe, so 24hr sun is available. DC electricity grids would distribute the power.