# Let's Face It. The World As We Have Known It Is Coming To An End. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 24, 2010, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603 "2010-05-24T18:52:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/61 "2010-05-24T22:54:26Z")
> [@adhay](#): > > So? And when Federal Reserve Notes join Confederate Dollars in history’s dust bin? The sad part is we won’t even be able to burn them for warmth because combustion will have stopped functioning. ---
**Author:** ![Algorithm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/algorithm/32/12204_2.png) [@Algorithm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algorithm)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/62 "2010-05-24T22:59:54Z")
> [@adhay](#): > > OTOH, I cannot seriously address any contrary post without some reference to the video. I can’t seriously engage you in debate until you’ve watched the following films: [ul] [li][Troll 2](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105643/)[/li][li][The Peanut Butter Solution](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089789/)[/li][li][Manos: The Hands of Fate](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060666/)[/li][li][The Barbaric Beast of Boggy Creek, Part II](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088772/)[/li][li][The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057181/)[/li][/ul] These films are crucial to the core understanding and formulation of my argument, so I implore you to view them as soon as you are willing to have an honest debate here. ETA: You also need to watch [Last Plane Out](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085823/) ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/63 "2010-05-24T23:00:39Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > even if every drop of oil vanishes within a decade, there have been other technologies invented since the 19th century besides the internal combustion engine. If every drop of oil vanishes, the problem won’t be cars but food production. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/64 "2010-05-24T23:05:01Z")
Most of Tennessee gets its power from hydroelectric dams. There used to be these things called electric streetcars, for commuting from the suburbs. Back in the Teens & Twenties. We could do it again. ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/65 "2010-05-24T23:05:07Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > If you want to play ball, you have to know the rules. And the rules are, there is precisely one person in the thread that can be expected to have watched that video: _ **you** _. And the rules are that as the poster of it it is your job to summarize and extract the relevent bits in answer to any particular argument. No homework done here. > [@](#): > > The presumption will always be that the reason you’re not proving these quotes and summarized arguements is that they don’t exist - that the video fails to address them. In which case we clearly haven’t missed anything by not watching it, and it never supported your point anyway. You are welcome to express your particular presumptions regardless of their total baselessness. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/66 "2010-05-24T23:05:24Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > If every drop of oil vanishes, the problem won’t be cars but food production. Hemp can be cross-pollinated with wheat to create a crop that grows twice as high using only 20% of the water. It could be grown in the Commons of a given bio region using surface water and locally organized fertilizer. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/67 "2010-05-24T23:13:49Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > Hemp can be cross-pollinated with wheat… Cite? Doesn’t cross-pollination require something a bit more closely related? This sounds about as likely as cross-breeding cows and chickens. ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/68 "2010-05-24T23:14:33Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Most of Tennessee gets its power from hydroelectric dams. > There used to be these things called electric streetcars, for commuting from the suburbs. > > Back in the Teens & Twenties. > > We could do it again. Quite so. Not forever and imho not with suburbs and street cars. But shoring up the TVA hydro infrastructure for future use would be a good WPA project. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/69 "2010-05-24T23:17:15Z")
> [@adhay](#): > > No homework done here. Why should I do your homework for you? > [@adhay](#): > > You are welcome to express your particular presumptions regardless of their total baselessness. On the contrary, you have provided rock-solid proof that your cite is crap - it’s so worthless and irrelevent that _even you_ refuse to quote from it. You yourself shout how worthless and stupid and wrong it is with every post you refuse to cite it, with every post you refuse to answer the arguments against you. (Your later refual also shouts that your _entire position_ is crap, incidentally. When you refuse to make arguments you truly to make our arguments for us.) > [@clairobscur](#): > > If every drop of oil vanishes, the problem won’t be cars but food production. I wonder of people actually think that the oil will just vanish - poof! Gone. One day the barrels are full, the next, they’re empty. All the wells are pumping full-tilt one day, and the next they all dry up all at exactly the same moment. That we are literally caught dry without warning, the way we will be when all combustion stops working and the campfires all go out, forcing us into small agrarian societies. In reality-land, of course, the oil will run out quite gradually, an event which will inevitably heralded by gradually rising prices. This gradual rise in prices will spur alternatives to the market - and not just new theorietical technologies, but also _old obsolete_ technologies! If it starts coming down to the wire people will build or restore _steam engines_ to bring the food to market and the coal to the plants. And the decrease in oil supply will be amply slow enough for this to happen. So no - barring some literally magic event, we aren’t going to have the societal rug yanked out from under us. Despite the hopeful dreams of those with guns wishing to be out from under the thumbs of repressive governments, and of those eco-agrarian yoga types who imagine that their neighbors with the bomb shelters and the food stores and the guns will leave them alone. ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/70 "2010-05-24T23:17:43Z")
> [@Algorithm](#): > > I can’t seriously engage you in debate … Enough said. And that goes for you, **begbert2**. ---
**Author:** ![Algorithm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/algorithm/32/12204_2.png) [@Algorithm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algorithm)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/71 "2010-05-24T23:21:13Z")
> [@adhay](#): > > Enough said. And that goes for you, **begbert2**. Did you even watch the videos? ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/72 "2010-05-24T23:24:42Z")
> [@adhay](#): > > Enough said. And that goes for you, **begbert2**. What do you imagine he was actually saying? Because it _can’t_ apply to me, since unlike what he was parodying and what you’re actually doing, I’m not hiding behind some crap cite. You see, I don’t have to - I _have_ arguments, which actually have some bearing to actual reality. Unlike, apparently, you. ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/73 "2010-05-24T23:27:42Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > What do you imagine he was actually saying? Because it _can’t_ apply to me, since unlike what he was parodying and what you’re actually doing, I’m not hiding behind some crap cite. You see, I don’t have to - I _have_ arguments, which actually have some bearing to actual reality. Unlike, apparently, you. It’s a fool’s errand, **Algo**. ETA:. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/74 "2010-05-24T23:29:19Z")
Don’t you already have a [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=564308) about this? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/75 "2010-05-24T23:29:49Z")
> [@adhay](#): > > I see it as an indisputable pre-apocalyptic factuality. And some people watching video of Neil Armstrong’s one small step see it as a footprint in the sand of the Arizona desert. I find their arguments equally convincing. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/76 "2010-05-24T23:34:16Z")
> [@adhay](#): > > It’s a fool’s errand, **Algo**. > > ETA:. It’s also a fool’s errand to argue against you, since it’s not like you’ll let mere facts sway you from your position, and it’s not like anybody would be convinced by your non-arguments anyway. But shooting down easy targets is kinda fun, so I’ll entertain myself for a little while by wasting the time doing it, and through that waste playing the fool. Why are _you_ doing it? ---
**Author:** ![Algorithm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/algorithm/32/12204_2.png) [@Algorithm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algorithm)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/77 "2010-05-24T23:36:59Z")
> [@adhay](#): > > It’s a fool’s errand, **Algo**. > > ETA:. It would probably be more reasonable for me to explain what relevance hours of video has to an argument I want you to refute. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/78 "2010-05-24T23:37:10Z")
(Apropo of nothing - the computer I’m currently on _doesn’t have sound_. I bet the video would be _real_ informative to watch.) ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/79 "2010-05-24T23:50:58Z")
No sound? It must suck back there in the 19th Century. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603/80 "2010-05-24T23:55:01Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > No sound? It must suck back there in the 19th Century. Meh, it’s a work box and I’ve got an ipod. My computer at _home_ has sound, but it also has Portal, so my interest in addressing **adhay** ’s non-arguments decreases with every step closer to it I take. Much less watching some long boring video that even _he_ won’t cite from. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-face-it-the-world-as-we-have-known-it-is-coming-to-an-end/540603.md?page=5)