Wednesday 5 November 2008

Polypropylene carpet. Nice!

We've just had a new carpet fitted on the stairs. Polypropylene. Hard-wearing, bleachable, brown. Just right for kids and dogs and everything. Should last for years. Well it won't be biodegrading for a while anyway. It reminded me just how completely dependent we are on oil. We wear it, heat with it, eat with it, light with it, write with it, boy it's in everything from cosmetics to cars.

However will we cope without it? 

It seems pretty clear to me that, whether we accept arguments that we will run out of oil, we won't run out, we'll reach peak production, we are going to have to consider alternatives. But what can do what oil can do? It just does everything.

I love my nano-generation system but I recognise that we can't run industries using stuff like that. How would you run a foundry or a chemical plant using windmills and solar panels?

Doesn't it all make you hope that someone somewhere is about to invent something very very clever? I reckon we'll need micro-generation, biofuels, fuel cells and fusion reactors at least but we may never find an alternative to the magic do-it-all juice that is oil.

Anyway, I'm going to try not to feel guilty about our new carpet and enjoy the soft squidgyness on my way up to bed.

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