Joined: May 06, 2005 Posts: 209 Location: North Texas
Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 10:33 am Post subject: "Test your knowledge of peak oil" - on main page
I think it would help brand new visitors to the site to quickly understand some basic things about peak oil. On the main page (www.peakoil.com) where it says 'What is peak oil?' and then has the answer, there is a big chunk of space on both sides of that. I think it should be filled with a link / graphic that says 'Test your knowledge of current oil usage (click here)'
The purpose would be to immediately 'shock' people with a short, simple quiz designed to enlighten them on how dependant societies are on oil.
Questions would be designed to educate people, not to test how smart they are. Sample questions would be similar to this:
1. The United States consumes 22 million barrels of oil every:
hour day week 2 weeks month 6 months year
2. How many top-of-the-line windmills would we need to build to replace 10% of our oil useage in the form of electric cars:
(i don't know the answer to this, but I'm sure it is shocking)
1 hundred 1 thousand 10 thousand 100 thousand 1 million 5 million
3. How much square feet of high-end solar panels is required to power 100 typical westernized houses:
4. What percent of their oil does the United States import:
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
5. About how much does one top-of-the-line windmill cost?
$1 million $5 milion $10 million $25 million $50 million $75 million $100 million
I think the majority of the brand new visitors to the site would enjoy such a quiz, and most likely they would be shocked at the answers. Like most problems in the world, the root of the problem is ignorance. It's not that people are stupid, it's just that they are ignorant of the real problem and potential solutions.
Of course, the community could come up with some nice questions and provide concise, informative answers that encourage people to continue learning more. The questions above are just examples, but I hope my post is clear enough to get the general meaning of it.
The spaces you see on the frontpage don't exist at lower video resolution BTW, so it should go into the menu with maybe a link in the intro section _________________ "When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F Roberts.
Joined: Apr 03, 2004 Posts: 6497 Location: My Grandkids' Farm
Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2005 11:10 am Post subject:
Yes, good idea.
Perhaps citing perceived reliable / mainstream sources instead of PO ‘advocates’? DOE, IEA, USGS, mainstream press instead of ASPO, LATOC, Dieoff, etc. _________________ Make a plan and work it:
Joined: May 06, 2005 Posts: 209 Location: North Texas
Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2005 11:32 pm Post subject:
Questions #1, #2, and #3 with answers. Let me know what I could / should change or any input would be great. Is there any other way to have nice spacing other than using CODE?
"Test your Knowledge of Peak Oil Issues"
Last updated July 28th, 2005
This simple quiz is primarily for newcomers to peakoil.com, though anyone could probably learn a little bit from it. It's questions are designed to enlighten new people to the issue and to let them know why we think it is important to learn more. The answers are at the bottom. Enjoy!
Code:
1. The United States uses roughly 21 million barrels of oil every
Day Week 2 Weeks Month 2 Months Year
2. How much square feet of good quality solar panels and associated infrastructure would it require to replace the electricity used by 100 western style houses?
5,000 10,000 20,000 30,000 50,000 100,000
3. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, when did new oil reserve discoveries reach an all-time high, only to steadily decline ever since?
1952 1962 1972 1982 1992 2002
Answers:
1. The United States uses roughly 21 million barrels of oil everyday.
You can see at the top of this table from the U.S. Department of Energy, it states 'Million Barrels per Day'. This was the average fourth-quarter consumption for the year 2004. Take a look at what some of the other countries in the world are using each day, you may be surprised.
2. How much square feet of good quality solar panels and associated infrastructure would it require to replace the electricity used by 100 western style houses?
As of August, 2004, one of the biggest solar plants in the world is in Germany. They're using 33,500 150 Watt solar panels made by Shell Solar to provide power to 1,800 houses in the area (about 2.5 KWh each). Each panel takes up about 14.22 square feet, for a total of 476,370 square feet of panels needed, or about 26,500 square feet per 100 houses.
But that figure is looking at just raw square footage of the solar panels. It doesn't take into account the amount of land around the panels required to make them operational. For example, this large project in Arizona requires a lot of land to get the desired output. If you include the panels themselves, and the area needed around them for maintenance, cables, power stations, etc., the number is about 30,000 square feet per 100 houses.
That's not so bad, only about 300 square feet per house. So what's the big problem? The cost - about $15,000 per house, not including future maintenance costs. The project in Germany cost $26.5 million to build, and the solar panels themselves will need to be replaced in 20-30 years.
3. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, when did new oil reserve discoveries reach an all-time high, only to steadily decline ever since?
According to this chart, 1962 was the peak year for discoveries.
Ever since then, several oil fields have been discovered, but none have been as large or consistent as the megagiant fields that have already been in production for many years. And since most oil comes from just a few, very large fields, the world must find future supergiant or megagiant reserves to continue on as normal. One of the more prominent finds since 1962 was in Mexico, but it is already showing signs of sharp depletion due to the extraction techniques used over the past few years.
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