The book Plan B 3.0 goes into great detail to emphasize the coming decline of oil:

“discoveries of conventional oil total roughly 2 trillion barrels, of which 1 trillion barrels have been extracted so far”

“The whole world has now been seismically searched and picked over,’ says independent geologist Colin Campbell ‘Geological knowledge has improved enormously in the past 30 years and it is almost inconceivable now that major fields remain to be found.”

But this is just a myth according to Richard Pike, chief executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry. The oil companies have just not disclosed how much is really available.

“the published estimates of proven global reserves are less than half the true amount”

Slate.com revisits the 1993 Micheal Crighton prediction of Mass Media extinction. Though it did not come true as speculated Crighton does not back off the belief that most of mass media is useless opinion and speculation, produced on the cheap and relying on source-less hearsay instead of hard earned facts.

“I want a news service that tells me what no one knows but is true nonetheless.”

He laments the fact that no media visionary has come forward to build the high-quality information service consumers need, or more importantly to convince them of the need.

Source: Slate.com

Konarka Technologies, headquartered in Lowell, Massachusetts and an offshoot of the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, is the developer of Power Plastic®, a material that converts light to energy, and can be produced using highly efficient inkjet printing processes. Their research goals include developing materials that could be used in wearable solar cells, photovoltaic fabrics, printed roofing materials, and flexible products and packaging.

Source: Konarka Technologies

Going solar is currently very costly (I priced some panels for my home - $8000 per panel). Newer thin film technologies aim to use lower cost alternatives - materials and commercial production processes that could produce solar collectors at a more reasonable cost than silicon based solar cells. Popular Science Magazine featured a product called the Nanosolar Powersheet as one of 2007 Innovations of The Year. In addition to providing solar collection without a panel, Nanosolar uses no expensive silicon and relies instead upon a “semiconducting ink” made of a mixture of copper, indium, gallium and selenium nanoparticles that are printed onto aluminum.

Some of the other companies working with thin film technologies are:

• BioSolar, Inc.- (OTCBB:BSRC)
• China Solar Energy Holdings Limited (HKG:CHINASOLAR)
• Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENER) (Uni-Solar Division)
• ErSol Solar Energy AG (FRA:ES6l)
• First Solar, Inc. (FSLR)
• Flisom
• Solar Applied Materials Technology Co. (TPO:1785)
• Solar Thin Films, Inc. (SLTF.PK) (thin film equipment manufacturer)
• Wurth Solar
• XsunX, Inc. (OTCBB: XSNX)

Soils enriched with calcium could aid in the reduction of carbon gases through the “stimulation of plants’ natural carbon fixation process” ;

In most soils, that carbon returns to the atmosphere. But in calcium-rich soil, the acid, which contains carbon, reacts with the calcium by forming calcium carbonate deposits around the roots. Isotopic analyses have shown that this carbon-trapping is significant: it could reach 150 kg [330 lbs.] per year per hectare in a field of wheat.

The carbonates in the soil remain stable for very long periods and consequently constitute a virtually permanent geological carbon sink. “They could be used passively, the same way reed beds are used in lagoons to grab heavy metals out of polluted water,” according to David Manning, professor of geology at Newcastle University (United Kingdom).

Source:

• Le Monde Article by: Hervé Kempf, (translated to english)

If that does not work there is always the option of “genetically engineered carbon-eating trees.“