WIND FARMS

BY AVIVA

1. WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES/DISADVANTAGES OF WIND POWER? 
•  ADVANTAGES:
• One of the most unique advantages of wind power compared to other energy sources is that after the wind turbine has been built, it doesn't consume anything, the wind is free. Because of this, no green house gases are produced in the process. 
• Another advantage is that wind turbines do not depend on electricity, so they never use more energy than they produce. 
• Wind turbines also come in a variety of sizes so they can satisfy many different uses. For example, you could get a smaller wind turbine to power your own house, but you could not use nuclear power for just a single home.
• DISADVANTAGES:
• One of the biggest disadvantages of wind power is that the wind is not reliable, we cannot be sure that the wind is going to blow consistently and there may be times that they produce no energy at all. 
• Although wind turbines do not cause pollution while they are operating, some pollution is produced in order to make the machine.
2. WHAT ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL WIND FARMS IN THE WORLD?
• Middelgrunden Wind Turbine Cooperative - Copenhagen, Denmark
• It has never taken on debt
• It has had no problems despite being in shipping lanes
• Wild Horse Wind Farm - Kittitas County, Washington
• It has created jobs and tax revenue
• It does not have a negative impact on the environment
• Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center - Taylor, Texas
• Largest wind farm in the world
3. COULD WIND POWER REPLACE OIL WHEN IT RUNS OUT?
•  Currently, wind and solar combined provide only 1% of the world's energy and experts have predicted that in the next 25 years that will increase to only 4%. In order to be able to rely completely on wind power, great improvements will be needed in the turbines that produce the energy and systems that store it.

Rise in Oil Consumption and Products Created

By Ry Faraola
1. History on the Increase of oil consumption
During the Industrial Revolution, there was a demand for energy resources. Muscle power and waterwheels helped to create energy in the beginning. But, as sciences advanced, the steam engine was invented, burning coal and wood to create energy for machinery. In 18th century England  the island nearly was deforested to satisfy the growing demand for power. Shortly after the combustion engine was created, oil industry were created, and in the span of 50 years, these industries flourished. The rise of population, the demand for products, i.e. automobiles, energy, and synthetics, resulted in a world wide expansion of the oil industry.
2. What products effect oil consumption?
Most modern amenities somehow consume oil. Products such as linoleum, or antihistamines are derived from oil through processes such as synthesis. The bag of potato chips needs oil to get the potato from farm to manufacturing plant, and then to ship a bag to a convenience store near you. A person might drive there automobile to buy said bag.
3. What would a grocery store look like after oil?
Gasoline is the use to transport all goods. After oil, without implementation of electric automobiles or high speed rail ways, the average grocery store would lack any mark brand not produced in a close vicinity. Produce would be seasonal, and local. The world might spiral into chaos for a brief moment of history, but alternative energy sources would still create energy.

CAN USING HORSES HELP REDUCE OUR DEPENDENCE ON OIL?

CAN USING HORSES HELP REDUCE OUR DEPENDENCE ON OIL?

BY ZANE

1. Can horses help reduce our dependency on oil?

Yes, horses can replace many machines we use every day. For example instead of driving up large trucks, lumber jacks could use draft horses to pull chopped down trees out of the forrest. Another way horses can reduce our dependancy on oil, is with their manure. If we use horses manure as fertalizer, we can cut down on the chemical fertilizer we use and farms use with equals less oil being used to make the fertilizers. The less man-made products and more natural recources we use the less oil we will use.

1. What are the advantages/disadvantages?

The biggest disadvantage to replaceing cars with horses would be the fact that if we replaced all cars with horses we would have so much methane gas that our atmosohere would already be ruined. We would need a way to get rid of, or utilize the methane gas to be able to relpace cars with horses. An advantage to using horses would be that we wouldn't have to keep destroying our planet to get more oil.

1. Is there a way to utilize methane gas?

There is infact a way to preserve and use mathane gas. Not only can the methane from horses be utilized, but methane from landfills can and should be utilized. This could infact be the worlds solution to our oil crisis.

USING OIL MORE EFFICIENTLY

BY DAVID

• Why is oil efficiency such a big problem?
• Because if we keep consuming this much oil at an exponential rate we will run out of oil soon and unless we find an alternative solution or use A LOT less oil we're in trouble. Although using less oil wouldn't be a permanent solution it would work for a while until we come up with an alternative energy source to power every single thing in the world.
• What are a few of the things that an everyday person could do to become more oil efficient?
• We can buy more oil efficient cars or make more oil efficient ones that are made by oil efficient machines or we could completely look into an alternative solution like instead of electricity plants, really big fields of solar panels, or instead of cars, horses.
• How can we push bigger organizations to use more efficient non-oil consuming sources of energy? What could some of these sources be?
• We can do a whole bunch of things like not buy any of the things that they produce or petition for them to get there energy/power from a completely different source like wind mills.

GETTING RID OF OIL

Ramsey Kerr:

Why can't we get rid of oil?

 We can't get rid of oil because we NEED it. We depend on the cheap, powerful, and abundant energy of oil and we have for centuries. The government is keeping us from moving on from the dying energy source that we use so much by spending tax money on finding and harvesting oil sources instead of finding clean and renewable sources to power that car and that cell phone and that TV and the million other things that we use oil to power. We don't only use oil for energy but also for material synthesis and farming, all plastic is made from oil and almost everything we use is made of plastic. It even takes oil energy to shape and distribute these products. In addition food, the essence of life (or, one of them), we have over farmed and mistreated the land so much that we have to make it fertile again by, you guessed it, putting oil in it. Fertilizers that almost all farmers use are made from oil. We are currently completely dependent on oil.

What would happen if we got rid of oil, and what will doing this it take?

 If we were to somehow be slightly: selfless, motivated, and aware of what is really going on with oil, we would be sensible enough to start to think about maybe looking at other possible serious sources for energy as a whole nation. But were not, we just keep acting like oil is going to last forever, and ignoring the signs of trouble, like the increase in gas prices. But oil is not going last forever, oil came from plants that were compressed and heated and underwent a chemical process that changed them into oil millions of years ago, and this isn't happening anymore. If we are to eliminate this problem like a tasty, but unhealthy junk food, we need to gradually take oil out of out technology, to have a long time to start finding ways to power our toys, or give them up. There are already people who are using healthier sources for energy, and they are the ones who don't have to pay taxes or oil generated power and refill their car with gas every time they run out.

What would happen if we didn't get rid of oil?

 The alternative is to keep using oil like it will be there forever. The government will keep paying to find more oil, instead of fixing other problems (national debt, education, global warming), and the consumer will keep buying the oil products and paying for the increasingly not cheep and abundant oil generated power. We will keep burning that black goo and not caring about the toxic emissions, or the wasteland we create every time we finish an oil source, or the unusable farming fields that we have filled with oil. We will keep finding source after source and draining it dry, until we don't, because there isn't infinite oil. We will eventually lose oil and there will be an economic breakdown because we will have lost all our plastic products, there will be no more power, and there will be chaos for people who can't get to their jobs or get their food or even pay for it, and we'll think "Why didn't we see this coming, how naive we were!"

 how nieve we were!"

Oil

by: Keelan MF




Q. How fast will oil deplete? How much time to prepare?


A. first off peak oil is when we have discovered and used the most oil possible and from there it is a decline in the amount of oil we have. predictions vary, some say it already happened and some say it wont happen till  at least 2100 but most agree we will peak between 2015 an 2020, and from there our oil will decline exponential and will soon be completely out of oil. these estimated give us a generous 50 years untill we cant use oil as a source of dependable energy for our growing world.


Q. Can we obtain new sources of energy (not oil) in time?


A. This can really depend. Most energy sources are extremely expensive (all much more than then oil) and the government would rather invest in the big oil companys then to the smaller green energy companies, And the fact that most green energy sources like wind and solar are unreliable and don't work in certain areas. If we find  some great new source of energy that is cheap and reliable I'm sure that the government will have it funded and running strong by the time our oil is gone.




Q. Is there any way we can increase the time we have to transition to no oil energy?


A. we cant prolong peaking unless we find another huge field. If we cut back on energy consumption of all kinds like riding bikes instead of cars and not buying as much plastic. We could graduate the decline.

Financial and economical impacts of the oil shortage.

1. What will happen to production companies and corporations when oil runs out, and what will be the effects of this?

Most production companies either use oil in the products (like plastics) or use oil to fuel their machinery (like tractors). Oil shortage will make production more expensive, and an absence of oil will make production impossible. This will force companies to change or die. Oil drilling groups will obviously have the hardest time because their product is finite, and will be used up. However, right now, oil companies are still raking in enormous amounts of money every year.

2. How do oil prices affect the economy?

Generally, when energy prices rise, the economy goes down. When oil is more expensive, production of almost everything becomes more expensive incurring inflation. As oil becomes more scarce (unless we come up with a solution) it will get more and more expensive until it is completely depleted and gone.

3. What are the financial reasons for not publicizing the oil crisis? 

As of now, our quickly depleting oil is not being publicized. There are a variety of reasons for this. Here are two examples. The first is that the government doesn't want people to be too frightened. The oil supply is depleting quickly, and we will need to get off of oil fast, or our entire system will fall apart when we run out of oil. The second reason is greed. There are still trillions and trillions of dollars worth of oil left in the Earth, and the heads of oil companies are eager to get it. If we switch off of oil too soon for them, they won't get that money.

http://205.254.135.24/oiaf/economy/energy_price.html