So I'm sitting here watching Pinks on the Speed channel, checking out an e-mail I got with a link from WorldNet Daily (many times know as Wingnut Daily) about abiotic oil. Oil not from ancient plants and dinosaurs. More like like ancient synthetic oil!
First off to make a long story short, the kid on Pinks WON the race with his big block 1st gen camaro, and gave back an 85 Monet Carlo to a real smooth talker, running a big block, NO2 and what we NY'ers call a good line of bullshit. I didn't the Camaro kid would win. He was a true sportsman.
The OTHER interesting thing; boring science, yet CRUCIAL for the running of *my* Camaro and Mustang is the continuity of cheap and availible petroleum. In particular gasoline.
There is a theory that petroleum "fossil fuels" are NOT biological in origin. In other words, the gas in my tanks ain't from dinosaurs. Of course this doesn't sit well with many of todays petroleum engineers/geologists (To RAMFM folks IIRC, TtT was/is a petroleum engineer - where's he been?) :-)
Most scientsits say that the origin of methane is mostly biological. This months "Nature" says the methane that SATURATES Saturns moon Titan is NON-BIOLOGIAL. Or *ABIOTIC*. Again to keep the post short, you can read:
What does this mean for petroleum? The supposed nutjobs saying todays gasoline, diesel, petroleum derivatives MAY NOT have biological origins may be right and the accepted theory that all this oil, gas methane etc came from rotting plants, dinosaurs, Old Yeller and Aunt Matilda.
Come to think of it, with all the driving, fixing, and changing oil I do, that's gotta be a HELL of alot of dinosaurs simply to get my cars rolling around. Perhaps todays petroleum engineers will revise their theories? Perhaps abiotic petroleum is wrong. But I think petroleum and its derivatives (plastics, asphalt, manufacuting) will be around a HELL of alot longer than the "Peak Oil" folks think. Perhaps the earths gas tank ain't on "E" by a long shot.