How do you know the world can't support 8 billion cars? Is this a gut feeling or do you have some research to back this up?
I'm honestly curious. There's enough iron and hydrocarbons (read plastic, not fuel) for that many cars. Energy comes in one form or another from the sun (as stored in various ways) or transuranic material (of which we have more than enough for hundreds of years of power). What are we missing? Fuel? Sure we can't put that many cars on the road all burning petrol but there's other fuel sources. If you want to buy a car that we could put one on the planet for every person then look at the Honda Insight (fuel cell car) or any of the pure electric cars.
gut feeling. Part of the reason I'm giving myself until the end of the year to be at my first mark is because I'll be doing a lot of research between now and then to figure out what the marks are.
I could join the ranks of those with multiple houses, for instance...but the planet can't even support everyone having a place like what I have now, much less 3 of them.
I also don't think there's readily available iron for even 250Mill cars - esp not on a sustainable level. We're already exceeding sustainable levels in some industries - beef, for instance. Cattle graze on 80% of the Earth's usable land, and that number is still increasing. Of course I don't eat beef anyway, but the point is that I don't want to measure things by current consumption or potential resources for one big hurrah - I want to figure out what the Earth could sustain. With caveats like, I don't expect us to be using combustion engines so predominantly 50 years from now.
eh, I've looked at some of those studies, and I don't buy some of their numbers. Claims such as the US alone approaching 200Mill? If we went around to the DMVs of the various states and counted up what was registered, I am of the opinion it would come in at a number that was a tiny fraction of that. Just because a car was made 20 years ago doesn't mean it is still on the road.
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I'm honestly curious. There's enough iron and hydrocarbons (read plastic, not fuel) for that many cars. Energy comes in one form or another from the sun (as stored in various ways) or transuranic material (of which we have more than enough for hundreds of years of power). What are we missing? Fuel? Sure we can't put that many cars on the road all burning petrol but there's other fuel sources. If you want to buy a car that we could put one on the planet for every person then look at the Honda Insight (fuel cell car) or any of the pure electric cars.
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I could join the ranks of those with multiple houses, for instance...but the planet can't even support everyone having a place like what I have now, much less 3 of them.
I also don't think there's readily available iron for even 250Mill cars - esp not on a sustainable level. We're already exceeding sustainable levels in some industries - beef, for instance. Cattle graze on 80% of the Earth's usable land, and that number is still increasing. Of course I don't eat beef anyway, but the point is that I don't want to measure things by current consumption or potential resources for one big hurrah - I want to figure out what the Earth could sustain. With caveats like, I don't expect us to be using combustion engines so predominantly 50 years from now.
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Also most cars don't use much (if any) iron anymore. New cars are more plastic and aluminum than iron.
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