(January 11, 2012 at 3:40 pm)Moros Synackaon Wrote: However, with regards to petroleum extraction, we are depleting the easy-to-get-to areas.
As such, the energy and difficulty, as well as environmental footprint (and damage?) increases with increased scarcity and depth.
Also, global petroleum, by mass, is most likely dwarfed by several orders of magnitude by iron, etc, so the analysis using that as a comparative is flawed.
Also Iron can be melted down and re used. (Correct?)
Once oil has been used as energy and the bonds that hold the molecule together release that energy you can't get it back.
"Cheaper" does not matter IMO, using something besides plastic bags, will always been cheaper in the long run. Cheapness is relative to subsidies and largeness of the operation. But who profits off plastic bags? The people who pump the finite resource from the ground, so why make a product from something that is renewable, when they can make more money on something that is not. They would never want to get off oil until the trillions of dollars left in the ground are pumped out... even if a better alternative comes along, in a purely economic sense, and thats seems to be how people operate now a days, is money money money!
