Reminder- things to expect in our lifetime.

[Bidet to you sir]

• We will reach peak oil in approximately ten years.
• We will have greater famines then ever before due to overpopulation.
• The Polar ice caps will continue to melt and increase at a greater rate then they are now.
• Biodiversity will continue to drop as we are in an extinction event currently.
• This isn't the last recession in our lifetime far from it, and well with peak oil and all those other events-they will get worse.
• The number of infections we can treat will become less and less due to our abuse of antibiotics.
• More wars will come, and if you're as cynical as I am, they'll probably be worse than now, and you'll probably be obliged to serve.
• The funding for alternative energy sources will probably be just as inadequate as they are now, and there will still be continuing levels of anti-nuclear views, and more funding for biofuels which will not be able to cope with our energy demands.
• Genocide will continue.

Genocide and alternative energy is opinion

All the others?

Have fun.

[/list]

[Rew]

I'll let my grandkids deal with it.

[Bidet to you sir]

You'll have grandkids by 2020? 2030 at the latest.
Peak oil will be ours, and it won't be fun.

[Akie]

It's definitely time to find a better energy source that's for sure.

But people always think the future is going to be worse, but in reality this world has always had problems and always will.  We'll find solutions for some problems and have new problems occur.

[Bidet to you sir]

Things will get better after that, definitely.
But expect a few decades of suck.
I'm not one of those people who seriously thinks the past was better and the present and the future are terrible and will continue to decline, because as far as I'm concerned this era is probably the best the human race has ever had.
I just think the future will be worse for a period and thats not gonna be fun.
And it's gonna be our job to get ourselves back to normality.

[hisak]

It doesn't matter because the world is going to end in 28 months anyway.

But really, I don't see any point in worrying about the future. What happens will happen, and panicking won't help. Obviously people working in fields that are trying to prevent said "decades of suck" should have a sense of urgency and concern, but everyone else need not be concerned apart from being environmentally and biologically responsible.

[Bidet to you sir]

Well duh, why worry about the inevitable end of our current civilisation?

It means we get a chance at doing it better.

[Beh]

You forgot about the inevitable decension of Xenu. I take offense, sir.

But really, I'm not worried about any of the things you listed. If I'm feeling cynical, those things will benefit my future job. (Clinical psychologist up in here.)

[Bidet to you sir]

They won't be able to afford you.

I on the other hand will be very useful.

[Hyruleansoldier]

You'll have grandkids by 2020? 2030 at the latest.
Peak oil will be ours, and it won't be fun.

2030 at the earliest, since none of us have kids yet, and it would take at least 20 years for them to have kids.  And strictly speaking they would still be infants and wouldn't care about oil, lol.  Until they would need to be driven to kindergarten/daycares on a regular basis?  One parent will probably just stay home, to prevent having to commute seperately from the spouse.

You forgot heat wave issues, communication problems (geomagnetic disturbances, solar flares, check the Solar New thread: 2012 will be the solar maximum), and the Apophis meteorite that will come dangerously close to earth in 2029.  We don't have the technology yet to ward it off if gravity betrays us and it ends up in decaying orbit over earth.

Before that, though, like I said the heat issues, and UV index making it a bad idea to be outside for a prolonged period of time, jeopardizing people's jobs in the outdoors, construction, fixing roads,...  More cancer, other diseases...  True about the antibiotics issue, we gotta put our hopes in nanotechnology.  In theory it will provide a much more effective way to combat cancer, for one.  Crystal-shaped objects designed to attack only the cancer cells, and not all cells which is what happens with chemotherapy.

I do think it's sad so little has been done about the oil problem.  I watched an interesting documentary last week about O2 credits, not a bad measure but it basically allows companies/industries that are harming the planet and using a lot of fuels to buy off these credits so their business can continue the way it is.  Some businesses try to improve themselves, but there should be more sanctions.   Everyone is just all being selfish and trying to maintain their profits.  Too few people worry about life even 10 years from now, which I find odd.  I'd understand if it was a 50+ years question: we'll all have retired by then.  But even then we might like to enjoy things the way we're able to nowadays.

[chibimoon]

I do think it's sad so little has been done about the oil problem. 

what oil problem? big oilies like chevron and shell started looking into alternative energy sources years ago. the media hype about "oh shit we are running out of oil and this will happen in our lifetime" is complete bullshit. there are a lot of unproven reserves around the world. granted, the majority of these are in deepwater or regions like the north of canada / alaska where it's a matter of being able to extract the oil from tar but technology has come so far in the last 5-10 years that it's highly doubtful we won't be able to reach these reserves in our lifetime.

and then will come the inevitable "bawww deepwater drilling, no that's bad, look what happened to BP in the GOM" - again, this is media hype and is complete nonsense. the regulations, especially for offshore exploration and production, are so strict in the O&G industry and it's laughable that the US government is pointing the finger at the operator and service companies when they themselves have a duty to regulate what is happening in their own waters. so obama can go swim in the ocean, it doesn't do anything for the ridiculous legislations they are trying to pass to stop operators from drilling in US waters.

let's not forget that the US is one of the biggest users of oil and if they cease exploration in their own waters, where will their oil come from? time to start another bogus war on another country in the middle east with massive oil reserves.

[Bidet to you sir]

Are you seriously denying peak oil?

[Fleamo]

I will if chibimoon won't. 

If we start running out of oil, price goes up, then people start using non-oil things instead because they become cheaper, relatively.  The market corrects for things like peak oil. 

The only thing that would allow for such a catastrophe to happen is if the entirety of OPEC together conspired to destroy the world economy, to their own detriment. 

[Bidet to you sir]

in the 10-20 year time span you think we can change our entire energy infrastructure, and that it will be largely business that does this?

I really wish I could be as optimistic as you.

You're basically expecting for oil companies and govt to spend ridiculously higher sums of money within the next decade to convert cars to alternative sources of energy, change where the majority of the worlds electricity comes from.
I mean some people in the industry and I mean the oil industry think we've already hit peak production and that we're simply on a plateau at the moment before the decline.

The timelines given for peak oil do not give a large amount of time to adjust to a world with higher oil prices and less oil production, to respond to all the problems you'd expect to be sufficiently ready before we hit the peak, not when we're half way through the decline.

And if the estimates of 2020-2030 thats not a lot of time, and I doubt you'd say we're sufficiently ready yet.

[Fleamo]

We only need to make the infrastructure for enough oil-substitute as we're going to need, and oil can supply the rest.  The amount of oil-substitutes will slowly increase, as the amount of oil we're using decreases.  Those who need to create that infrastructure for their business to work will do so before it's needed.  If this didn't happen, oil speculators would see the future rise in oil prices, and buy up oil so the price rises today, causing the oil-substitutes to be more competitive, meaning their creators would invest more heavily in the infrastructure or research needed.