Quote:
Originally Posted by dculkin
I don't know. Even if the environmental harm caused by drilling at ANWR is slight, national security interests say that we keep that oil for future reserves.
That's my amateur's viewpoint of ANWR. I'm sure that it is simplistic, but I have never heard a proponent of drilling in ANWR respond to it.
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Use it now or use it later, it's all the same to me.
If drilling started today I doubt a drop of oil would enter the market for several years.
The argument that it "only" supplies X months of oil is a non-argument to me. The same could be said for any number of oil fields in the USA and around world. In aggregate, they add-up to decades of oil. If we followed the argument all the way to absurdity, we shouldn't burn any of it since it is all non-renewable.
My great hope is that someday we (humanity) will develop controllable, economical fusion power. However, I wouldn't bet on it happening. I think there's a very large chance that controllable, economical fusion is impossible.
A far more prosaic (and far more likely) source of hydrocarbon fuel is from photosynthesis. At this point we depend on plants to do the dirty deed. If we could photosynthesize without the crusty middleman (plants), we could produce 6-carbon molecules using sunlight, the atmosphere, and water. Energy would be from the Sun -- cheap and abundant. It could also be useful in long voyages in spacecraft.
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