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How will we travel as the price of oil rises?
at what price point do people stop flying?
What would replace planes?
Can they run on hydrogen?
Will we go to zeppelins? Trains?
Its not a huge issue today, but it might be in another 10-20 years...
How will we travel as the price of oil rises?
at what price point do people stop flying?
What would replace planes?
Can they run on hydrogen?
Will we go to zeppelins? Trains?
Its not a huge issue today, but it might be in another 10-20 years...
The gov't needs to pick you up as part of a think tank or something, no one has ever thought about the effects on future travel and alternative fuels before, this is ground breaking!
Air travel is still very cheap and will remain so for the next few decades.
But you do raise a good point that few people are willing to discuss: what are we going to do when the oil is all gone. It is a finite resource and is expected to run out in about 60 years.
Aviation will be hardest hit. Electric batteries will have to come a long way for them to work. Their weight is the biggest detriment. Hydrogen tanks are also very heavy. Zeppelins are too slow. High speed trains will work on shorter overland routes.
But I think that people will continue to fly even as the airfares rise to reasonable levels. It will probably only be when it is too late that we begin to seriously confront the matter. Easter Island is a good case in point (the inhabitants chopped down all the trees and thence had no material to build homes, make tools, cook food, etc.)
Personally, I think we need to raise the tax on oil/gas.
Air transport has a very high cost of moving the vehice, and a low cost of infrastructure. Conversely, surface transport has a lost cost of moving the vehicle, and a high cost of infrastructure. High speed trains are very efficient, once they are in place, and can be more efficient with new methods of propulsion (such as compressed air through a tube), but at even greater infrastructure cost.
Air is only essential across oceans, until we either learn how to or commit ourselves to tunneling under the water.
The promising news is that virtually the entire population of the planet lives on a single land mass, with cross-oceanic links only required at the Bering Strait. A Bering tunnel would allow low-energy, very-high-occupancy, 1,000+ MPH overland transport from Buenos Aires to Capetown, and all that need be done is to build the rails and the rolling stock.
Air transport has a very high cost of moving the vehice, and a low cost of infrastructure. Conversely, surface transport has a lost cost of moving the vehicle, and a high cost of infrastructure. High speed trains are very efficient, once they are in place, and can be more efficient with new methods of propulsion (such as compressed air through a tube), but at even greater infrastructure cost.
Air is only essential across oceans, until we either learn how to or commit ourselves to tunneling under the water.
The promising news is that virtually the entire population of the planet lives on a single land mass, with cross-oceanic links only required at the Bering Strait. A Bering tunnel would allow low-energy, very-high-occupancy, 1,000+ MPH overland transport from Buenos Aires to Capetown, and all that need be done is to build the rails and the rolling stock.
High speed rail has been tried time and time again in this country. Back in the 60's they invested millions to try to get it going...and it hasn't been done. The latest push by President Skippy for it is only the latest attempt.
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