What if oil turns out to be of great worth for something other than fuel

What if oil turns out to be of great worth for something other than fuel

For thousands of years trees have provided mankind with a versatile material useful in construction of houses and furniture, it’s been used for shoes and tableware, as well as a fuel source. However, it wasn’t until recently that mankind discovered an even more important role for trees: they are the lungs of the world. Without the carbon dioxide consumption provided by the forests of the world, the atmosphere would soon become toxic to humans and other mammals. We are now battling to prevent the destruction of the world’s remaining great forests.

What will our posterity think if they discover some great use for petroleum that we hitherto are not aware of. With so many energy sources to choose from, oil only has two advantages, it’s easy to harvest, and the distribution of it generates vast wealth and power for the governments and corporations that control it.

We know how to make alcohol powered cars, but as prohibition demonstrated, alcohol is easily made, eliminating the need for vast supply chains and creating opportunity for many local entrepreneurs. The result would be a distribution of power among many smaller entities.

While an alcohol powered car wouldn’t have the horsepower or range of a gasoline powered car, it would be a boon to the environment due to the clean burning nature of alcohol. It’s not only a renewable resource, but we could leave the desert to its indigenous life.

Alternatively, in 1980 when Mt ST Helen’s erupted, it was the equivalent of 20,000,000 tons of TNT, and something like 10% of the mountain was removed. So to move the whole mountain would take 200,000,000 tons of TNT. If One ton of TNT releases 4.2 x 10**9 Joules of energy, then it would take 8.4 x 10**17 joules of energy to move Mt ST Helen’s. Since a gallon of gas is equivalent to 1.3 x 10**8 joules, then moving Mt ST Helen’s would take the equivalent of 65 billion gallons of gas. It is said that mountains can be moved with the faith of a mustard seed. Think of what Mother Teresa could have been worth if we converted her faith into gasoline!