What will the UK look like in 10-20 years time?

ninky_2

Conrad wrote: »

Nuclear fusion is getting close, genetically engineered organisms that expell gas are far from science fiction, immense UK wave potential, wind, solar, hydrogen and good ole nuclear of course - which if push comes to shove WILL come about in time.
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We have had technology that is better than oil reliant transport for some time. Maglev technology has been around since the 1970s. It can achieve speeds of 4000mph. It is still in use in Japan where even a model from the 1970s (and the technology has moved on considerably) is faster than a modern TGV. Unfortunately, free market capitalism (in the for of powerful oil companies and car companies), has seen the implementation of this technology blocked.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maglev_train

If we were to build evacuated tunnels between continents we could have international travel with zero carbon emissions and much much faster than now (less than 1 hr london to new york).

ad9898_3

Conrad wrote: »

Ad I love the avatar btw - is that Jason - I love horro flicks

No, it's Michael Myers from Halloween, I remember watching the original when I was about 10, it scared the hell out of me, but I've been hooked ever since, especially with the old cheesy video nastys from the late 70's, early 80's.

lostinrates

Gosh, although I agree with an awful lot of what's being said, its very depressing. Instead of offering on the place by the very main road I might just throw myself onto the very main road if this goes on!

ad9898_3

lostinrates wrote: »

Gosh, although I agree with an awful lot of what's being said, its very depressing. Instead of offering on the place by the very main road I might just throw myself onto the very main road if this goes on!

I've been reading this stuff for some years now. However the last book I picked up on the subject was 'The Long Emergency' written by James Howard Kunstler, I only got through the first chapter and had to put it down ( and haven't yet beeen able to pick it back up), he was way to realistic, even for me, at the probable future. A devastatingly depressing book. Not recommended for light hearted reading or 'the head in the sand' fraternity.

John_Pierpoint

ad9898 wrote: »

An uplifting post Conrad, and I commend you on that, I will agree that we may just be saved by the bell, and I hope we are (I do have a child), however I'm just commenting on what the situation is now, with the available knowledge we have now. Nuclear fusion seems to be our only light at this time, to have any hope of the world's 6 billion people living as they do now, but it's a very dim light. It's decades away, and may never come to pass. Everything else you mention requires amounts of material that will all be peaking in the coming decades, some are much, much closer than the general public imagine.

Did you see that recent TV programme - Horizon I think it was - hosted by youthful looking physicist and rising media star star Brian Cox - the PR face of CERN ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Cox_(physicist)

In the programme Brian went through the all the alternative technologies, including fission, pointing out how they could all make a contribution BUT with the world's present population all of them could only offer a too little too late failure

Surprise surprise our only hope is to build a little sun here on earth with nuclear fusion.

The problem is that I heard all this and believed it when I was 12 years old, back in the 1950's:
http://speeches.empireclub.org/details.asp?SpeechID=1578&FT=yes

The newspapers were full of more rubbish about electricity too cheap to meter again, because of a wonder new miracle machine called Zeta.

The above speech in Canada, a country where they built quite effective nuclear power stations because they had plenty of uranium, explains what went wrong with Zeta.

Perhaps as individuals we should plant willow coppice.
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zappahey

kabayiri wrote: »

What is interesting is the change in our collective vision of the future.

<snip>

- we would worry about how to spend all our free time

<snip>
- no one has copious free time anymore

Arguably, the amount of free time in society has increased hugely, it's just that it's not evenly distributed. Many of those still in work don't have much in the way of free time, having to do long hours or multiple part-time jobs to make ends meet or just to stay in employment.

Most of the free time is being "enjoyed" by all those people who retired early, are unemployed or are on long-term disability benefits.

ad9898_3

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

Did you see that recent TV programme - Horizon I think it was - hosted by youthful looking physicist and rising media star star Brian Cox - the PR face of CERN ?

I did catch some of this program John, of what I saw it was very interesting. It's been a little bit of a hobby of mine for a few years now, reading and researching subjects on energy, I don't have any formal qualifications in the subjects, although I should get them, as an interest in a subject makes it much easier to learn.

What we saw on that program is there is no 'quick fix' just around the corner for the worlds population, so many people, even on this website (even the very learned ones) believe we will be saved at the bell by some 'miracle', the unfortunate thing is, it's very, very unlikely to happen given the current state of our knowledge and technology, I think Brian Cox touched on this in the program.

Thats the problem with this recession, compared to others, in other recessions we had the resources, both in the UK and globally that when we emerged from recession we could start to grow again. This time it's going to be different, once demand ramps up, oil will once again head for the heights it did last summer, causing inflation that will need to be dampened with higher interest rates, which in turn will dampen down growth.

As we are now on the plateau of oil production, this 'saw tooth' like recovery then a downturn, then recovery and downturn etc... is likely to continue for the forseeable future. This is one of the reasons I laugh at those who think in real inflation adjusted terms, that one day 2007 house prices will return, they won't, not ever.

A_fiend_for_life

Interesting article on the 'perfect storm':

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/23/jonathon-porritt-recession-climate-crisis

A_fiend_for_life

ad9898 wrote: »

How are we going to produce the electric for these cars ?, again on any scale that we are used to, a huge and I mean a huge infrastructure of solar and wind turbines would have to be introduced, and if we did this (which isn't possible on any kind realistic timetable), just as the last turbine was constructed, we would hit 'peak lithium'.

Next;)............. it's not looking good is it.

Lithium might not be so much of a problem. While the Santa Cruz region of Bolivia has huge gas reserves and is seeking independence from the rest of Bolivia, Uyuni on the southern altiplano has huge lithium reserves in the Salar de Uyuni.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/11/bolivia_lithium.php

They'll probably end up rebuilding the railways on the altiplano and exploiting other mineral deposits in southern Uyuni. It's worth looking at this area on google earth the colours are astounding.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salar_de_Uyuni

vivatifosi

My DH has a PhD in energy. I can't say what he did as you would be able to google it and find out who we are, but he did invent a way of producing a fuel from a previously neglected (and plentiful) source. His sponsors (a commercial organisation) were horrified by his discovery and buried his PhD as it would have made their existing plants redundant. That was in the 1990s. Since then the plants have become uneconomic anyway and have shut.

If we want to sort out the problem, we should be reviewing the dusty bookshelves of our universities as there were a heck of a lot of good PhDs shelved because they offended the big corporates. Back then of course, we were much more blinkered regards energy opportunities than we are now.

Having been told that he was not allowed to continue working on his discovery my DH left the scientific community and has never gone back.