re: classic kunstler - clusterkfark chronicles
YC, what you are saying is exactly what I was trying to get across. Innovation will change the way things are done and those with foresight will be well rewarded. My brother was once involved in building plants using cow manure to produce methane gas. This was sold to gas companies and the sludge left was turned back into feed which was sold back to the feed lots. Was a success but low natural gas prices made it uneconomical; now it might be a different story. I think around 30% of farm land in the US stands fallow to keep grain prices up. If grain is used to provide fuel, that land will come into production. Water from the tropics to the center for hydroponic growing could produce grain for ethanol. Genetic engineering of grains for fuel production would not have the political problems that it has for food. People will think out of the box and things will get done. People will become rich by investing in those pursuits. I will say, though, that as a former petroleum geologist, the world will not run out of relatively cheap petroleum in our lifetime.
