Infinite resources Options

[Serbitar]

Why has there never been a major resource crisis in the shadowrun universe?

Infinite oil resources? Fusion energy everywhere?
Remember: Plastic is made out of oil.

Any source book that covers the topic?

[Geekkake]

I'm often curious about this myself, actually. I just had a discussion today with a co-worker about the same thing after my woman dropped $40 on filling the tank in her car, which gets pretty decent mileage. Hell, here in Phoenix, we've already seen a couple pretty ugly gas crises in the last few years.

Thoughts, folks?

[bustedkarma]

Hydrogen?
Bio-Diesel?
Hybrids?
Those would be my guesses.

[Shrike30]

Fusion power is mentioned a couple of times... that alone would solve 80% of the power problems out there. Then there's the Grid for cars (electrically powered, computer controlled), methane powered cars... hell, we've got assembler nanites at the point of SR, what's so hard about assembling hydrocarbon chains? We could make synthetic plastics.

[PBTHHHHT]

<snipped>
Well, K10's post beneath me says it all.

[Kanada Ten]

2002 - In the U.S.A., the beginning of what the media dubs "the Resource Rush." corporate coalitions demand and are granted access to oil, mineral, and land resources on U.S. federal lands. The U.S. government invokes eminent domain again and again to claim property, only to license its exploitation to a corporate sponsor. The majority of lands taken in this fashion are Indian reservations and federal parklands. Conservationists and Indian-rights groups express their shock and disgust, though corporate influence and paramilitary power make it dangerous to object. (Shadowrun Second Edition)

2006 - Most of the signator nations of the Antarctica Treaty abandon it in favor of exploiting the land's natural resources. (Target: Wastelands)

2008 - In the Philippines, years of slash-and-burn agriculture combined with over utilization of natural resources by corporate interests have left the islands ecologically devastated. (Cyberpirates)

2008 - On May 5, In the U.S.A., United Oil Industries announces that it has acquired the right to exploit the petrochemical resources in one-quarter of the remaining federal parks and one-tenth of the remaining Indian reservations, which the government has just confiscated. (Shadowrun Second Edition)

2011 - In Canada, the Athabascan Tar Sands oil reclamation project is reopened when Biogene Laboratories Inc. markets the first efficient oil-leeching bacteria. (Native American Nations Volume II)

2013 - In Denver, Colorado, U.S.A., the Denver Union Stockyards are purchased by Denver Foodstuffs Inc. (DFI) and turned into one of the Southwest's largest sources of algae for food purposes. (Denver: The City of Shadows)

2015 - In Puerto Rico, Natural Vat Food Technologies is established. The corporation quickly makes a name for itself by growing fungus in the now-overflooded sugarcane fields in the Caribbean. The fungus is converted into a synthetic food called mycoprotein. This new product quickly makes Puerto Rico the richest island in the Caribbean. (Cyberpirates)

2030 - On October 15, U.S. President MacAlister and Canadian Prime Minister Harold Frazier sign a treaty to merge the remains of the United States of America with what is left of Canada, including her major industrial center and important natural resource areas, into the United Canadian and American States (UCAS). (Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North America)

2031 - On May 19, the Russian Republic, prompted by internal pressures and the loss of Siberia, steamrolls across Belorussia and launches an invasion of Central Europe to secure vital industrial and agricultural resources. (Shadowrun Second Edition)

2027 - In Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., the Los Angeles Power and Water Company begins the first use of cold fusion. The process, which produces fresh water as a by-product, helps to alleviate Los Angeles' water shortage. (California Free State Sourcebook)

In the Tir sourcebook, they mention that modern technology and gengineering was the only reason they could produce enough food to feed everyone. I'm actually working on a post about awakened kudzu making an excellent ethanol source - though deadly to harvest.

This post has been edited by Kanada Ten: Apr 29 2006, 12:19 AM

[Big D]

If you need it badly enough, there are more hydrocarbons under Alberta and Colorado than have been pumped out of the ground in the history of mankind. They're just not very cheap to get. If oil prices fall back down those fields will become worthless again.

There's also more crude around Venezuela than Saudi Arabia, but it's ultra-heavy crude and about as expensive as the sand and shale to use.

There's also the small matter of molecular manufacturing, which lets you build rather nice structures out of things like carbon.

So, we're not going to "run out", but that doesn't mean that prices will fall.

[Voran]

Hell, I'm surprised there isn't a bullet shortage.

[hobgoblin]

for some reason, there never is...

[Big D]

There *is* a bullet shortage--why do you think ammo costs $2-$10 per round?

[Dranem]

I'd have to check the books again, but I seem to remember reading that - by 2070 - most wheeled vehicles and even some airplanes are now fully electric and no longer require fossile fuels.

[Big D]

I'd buy that if you assume that some form of fusion is supplying more than enough cheap, clean juice to the grid and that battery tech has advanced to the point where battery-powered cars have decent range (the main problem with electric cars today).

I can't speak to the former, but the latter is pretty plausible as molecular manufacturing improves. We just don't have the tech to make it economic today.

[Kanada Ten]

In SR3 the vehicle rules included fuel-cell, battery, methanol, and mixed petrochemicals. Shiawase runs a nuclear power plant inside Seattle (Glow City) and Gaeatronics runs a cold fusion plant on the Olympia peninsula. The Renraku Arcology had two fusion reactors in the basement.

[Jaid]

[Kanada Ten]

Yeah, there is something about buying from the lowest bidder and extraterritorality that just doesn't spell clean.

[Edward]

If you look at the rules in rigger 3 it shows battery powered cars have almost the range of petrol.

We have today bioengineered organisms (based on yeast and algae) that produce plastics. At this time the plastic produced is not of a particularly valuable type and production is not efficient but within 10 years I would wager your shopping bags could be made from this plastic. (considering it was 3 years ago I saw the story it could be in production already)

Edward

[Westiex]

I believe that the Renraku Arc has 3 reactors - they used to run one a month while they were still dependant on Seattle's Grid. After an unacceptable number of brown outs, they went to two reactors online at a time, with the third down for maintenance.

(P14, Renraku Arc shutdown)

[Cray74]

[hobgoblin]

there are all kinds of petrol replacements out there. but right now, they are still more expesive and less available.

still, the biggest problem will be to get people to go from private vehicles to public transports. not so much for comuting between home and work, but between home and all those small things we have to do.

this includes stuff like shopping, sports, leisure, and that kinda stuff that we take for granted. imagine what kind of hit not being able to won their own vehicle will have on suburban or rural teens.

but i guess the rise in drone tech and the matrix have killed some of that need. why go shopping in reality when you can do it in VR and get it deliverd by drone? a drone that most likely will be doing the same for others in the same area while they are at it.

there is allso the corp enclaves. they will cut down on the need to do long distance commutes. think of them like a kind of military base or something. and if the only thing you do is push data around, do it from home (preferably inside the enclave, on a secure connection).

there will maybe be some problems with long distance travel. or maybe thats the reason for the semi-ballistics and stuff like that. they can probably work just as well on direct hydrogen mixed with oxygen.

so there will be some changes. but there will not be the collapse of the modern world like some people think. but book your charter trip while you can. those may well suffer, greatly...

btw, i think there was some news not long ago when it came to the production speed of bio-diesel...

[hyzmarca]

I'm still waiting for someone to invent Mr. Fusion.

[mfb]

don't forget Japan. their rise to international power, in SR, was fueled (heh) by the fact that they set up a bunch of satellites that collect solar power and beam it down to earth as microwaves. i'm assuming it's not actual microwaves, since, if i understand things correctly, those would basically just fry an area several miles across rather than coming down in tight beams that can be collected safely. but the basic concept is sound enough.

[Lindt]

Heheh, I remember microware power plants from Simcity 2k... and why not to use them. Had a nasty habit of turning prime commercial area into a 2 block inferno rather quickly.

[Apathy]

Also, VITAS had a significant impact on the globe's overall population. Fewer people would mean less waste (all other things being equal) right?

[Big D]

Microwaves don't quite work like that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_satellite

[Divine Virus]

I hate to say it, but I allways assumed a "wizard-did-it" kind of deal. THey said that magic helped heal and restore the earth, I assumed that ment replenishing some resources as well.