[CrazedZooChimp]

[quote author=ferrari link=topic=12002.msg116407#msg116407 date=1428596961]Fracking is better than oil?

It's unclear. It basically depends on how much methane is released by the wells, since methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas it could potentially offset the CO2/energy gains of natural gas vs oil/coal (I think in this context WIM meant coal, since afaik power plants don't really use oil derivatives, but I may be wrong).

Anywho, I'm generally optimistic about humanity's ability to muddle through, it's hard to know what our world will look like in 100 years, guessing is mostly pointless. I do find the comments about CA being unlivable because of water to be odd when the vast majority of our water is used by agriculture. People can live here just fine with the water we have if it we weren't farming...
[/quote]

It's sort of moot, since oil and gas are used for totally different things.  Oil is used for things like transport fuel  and petrochemical products like plastics.  Natural gas is used for stationary power requirements like electricity generation and heating where it can be piped. 

I also am optimistic humanity won't die out anytime soon.  We're surprisingly adaptable.  If the price of almonds or grass fed beef has to double, we'll probably be OK.

[CrazedZooChimp]

[quote author=ferrari link=topic=12002.msg116407#msg116407 date=1428596961]Fracking is better than oil?

It's unclear. It basically depends on how much methane is released by the wells, since methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas it could potentially offset the CO2/energy gains of natural gas vs oil/coal (I think in this context WIM meant coal, since afaik power plants don't really use oil derivatives, but I may be wrong).

Anywho, I'm generally optimistic about humanity's ability to muddle through, it's hard to know what our world will look like in 100 years, guessing is mostly pointless. I do find the comments about CA being unlivable because of water to be odd when the vast majority of our water is used by agriculture. People can live here just fine with the water we have if it we weren't farming...
[/quote]

It's sort of moot, since oil and gas are used for totally different things.  Oil is used for things like transport fuel  and petrochemical products like plastics.  Natural gas is used for stationary power requirements like electricity generation and heating where it can be piped. 

I also am optimistic humanity won't die out anytime soon.  We're surprisingly adaptable.  If the price of almonds or grass fed beef has to double, we'll probably be OK.