Re:Norway Is Walking Away from Billions of Barrels of Oil
by alphakappa on Monday April 08, 2019 @10:23AM
(#19605452)
Let’s not forget that oil is not just used as an energy source. It’s the basis of plastics, drugs, cosmetics and many more things, not all of which have substitutes.
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Re:Norway Is Walking Away from Billions of Barrels of Oil
by workrockin on Monday April 08, 2019 @01:34PM
(#19607266)
There is a good book about this that discusses the problem you just mentioned [1]. Not only do we need to find a way to replace oil as energy source we also need to find a way to replace it in all the other consumables. Or at least find viable substitutes.
How this will happen is not very clear (to me)
Re:Norway Is Walking Away from Billions of Barrels of Oil
by toomuchtodo on Monday April 08, 2019 @10:41AM
(#19605629)
All the more reason to conserve oil for those purposes. It is too valuable to burn.
Re:Norway Is Walking Away from Billions of Barrels of Oil
by beat on Monday April 08, 2019 @10:42AM
(#19605634)
How much oil is used in manufacturing materials, though, rather than as energy? I suspect that's a small percentage.
Re:Norway Is Walking Away from Billions of Barrels of Oil
by antisthenes on Monday April 08, 2019 @05:51PM
(#19609405)
About 12-13%, according to this: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.php?page=oil_home
And most of that is lubricants and plastics. I think we can all agree that reducing our use of plastics is generally a good thing overall - we might make the switch back to more easily recyclable materials, e.g. aluminum and glass, which, although energy intensive to recycle, are almost endlessly renewable.
Not sure what good substitutes for oil based lubricants would be.
Re:Norway Is Walking Away from Billions of Barrels of Oil
by beat on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @12:43PM
(#19616520)
The primary problem with petroleum is greenhouse gasses, so I'm far less concerned about its use in plastics than I am in its use for fuel.
Re:Norway Is Walking Away from Billions of Barrels of Oil
by max76 on Monday April 08, 2019 @11:20AM
(#19605968)
I have low confidence in this answer, so I hope someone on the internet corrects me if I'm wrong.
Oil is refined into many different byproducts. Some of the byproducts are used in manufacturing, and other byproducts are used in energy generation.