The percentage of petroleum used in making model railroading products, or even consumer plastic goods in general is FAR smaller than the use of petroleum as an anergy source. Plastics can also be recycled. Petroleum as an energy source is exhaustible. Hypothetically speaking, if the world stopped using petroleum as an energy source, we'll have an unlimited amount left for making models.
Seems to me, that if I buy more trains, build more scenery, lay more track, build more railroad room and repeat this over and over, I can have a small part in saving the world then?? Well, I guess we had better get busy railroading!:happy:
I would actually agree with this. I was being largely facetious because I get disillusioned when the train club meeting discussion hardly mentions trains and just turns into a general gripe session about the entire world and how it's never turning right. I have even heard of a technology recently developed whereby plastic waste can be heated up and all the complex chemical chains in it broken down and refined back into basic petroleum products: gas, diesel, etc. What's more, the process also produces hydrogen which the company was using to fuel its own systems making it virtually self sustaining, as long as they have waste plastic to render down. If technology like that could be expanded, regional areas and even individual cities could lend a hand in producing their own energy reserves and also help reduce a lot of waste of so called un-recyclable plastic products. As far as Canada being the downfall of society, I think the scientist who broke that headline really let something slip. The demand for oil is a worldwide phenomenon, and that individual himself is part of the problem. So maybe he should stop driving his car, stop using electricity to power his home, give up all the superfluous technology, cell phones, computers, flat screen TVs and entertainment systems he probably doesn't really need to survive, and maybe he could singlehandedly bring a halt to the collapse of civilization. Maybe there might even be a Nobel prize in it for him.
I pity future generations - with what they are going to be left with they'll probably wish the world had ended in 2009.
Petroleum products and coal remain a temporary solution. When we really start to run out of them, there will likely be some temporary disruption, but in the long run we need to get away from an energy model which is non-sustainable from both a supply and side-effects standpoint. It is, perhaps, unfortunate that we still have such a large and ready supply of fossil fuel. It lets us slack off and not really concentrate on development of solar and fusion sources, which would give us truly unlimited energy without the global warming and pollution problems. By modeling trains, we indirectly do some good. Railroads are incredibly efficient ways to move both people and freight, so we are encouraging efficient energy use, the other side of the equation.
