The sliding $US and the price of Oil

I just noticed one thing in this thread:

The Europeans sure as hell aren't bitching about the exchange rates right now.

Edit: I noticed a 2nd thing:

Nobody ever mentioned cramping a little of their lifestyle permanently regardless of fuel prices.

I just returned from a dive trip to Ibiza Spain and a family holiday to the Algarve Portugal. Both were incredibly expensive thanks to high prices and a high value Euro. Tourism at both locations is 50 percent down. Suddenly the Far East, even with baggage allowance problems looks cheap. The place for best value for us foreigners must be the good old US of A. However, Airbus Industries is making allowances on its order book for 80 airlines to go belly up next year so we may not be able to get there. Maybe the Golden Age of Travel is over. Well, sex and motoring was ruined once it got popular so I guess travel was next!

Perhaps sex and motoring are ruined in the Europe and North America, but looking at the number of Ferraris and Lamborghinis in Asia, I'd say it's alive and well. Of course I'm not equating expensive italian cars to get sex...although I'm sure there must be some correlation.

Perhaps sex and motoring are ruined in the Europe and North America, but looking at the number of Ferraris and Lamborghinis in Asia, I'd say it's alive and well. Of course I'm not equating expensive italian cars to get sex...although I'm sure there must be some correlation.

I was not referring to owning an expensive car any more than I was referring to owning any parafernalia for sex. I was talking about USING it! (I used to enjoy both. Now I drive a family hatchback - with a family!)

Edit: I noticed a 2nd thing:

 

Nobody ever mentioned cramping a little of their lifestyle permanently regardless of fuel prices.

And Americans happily pay $2 for a small bottle of "spring water" and $5 for a cup of coffee that has been cleverly renamed as a "latte".

People in this country have gotten spoiled - spending money that they don't have and then they moan and bitch about interest rates on their credit cards.

And Americans happily pay $2 for a small bottle of "spring water" and $5 for a cup of coffee that has been cleverly renamed as a "latte".

 

People in this country have gotten spoiled - spending money that they don't have and then they moan and bitch about interest rates on their credit cards.

Starbucks is having issues, so maybe there is some hope for America

We sold our 4x4 and boat to do our bit, still cost us $40 to fill the bike up.

Our VEE(1000) with a WEE(650)

Hey Wagsy,

Make sure you don't go "A over T" on that bike, some of us here welcome your advice

Roger

I think there will always be a small percentage of people willing travel, those fortunate few with budgets to spend. Also welcoming are those operators investigating more eco friendly options for their resort operations. The belts will get tightened and remain that way. Its the way of the future I believe, nothing is limitless, especially fuel.

Time to find that small island, a maiden who is happy to lead that kinda life and a solar powered charging system.

Cheers,

Mark.

Im waiting for it to get soooo bad we end up like MAD MAX 2.... I've bought a bullet belt, high heels, leather chaps and a gimp mask.. And accessorized with a sawn off shot guns and a Bowie knife... Im the LORD OF THE WASTELANDS !!!!!!!

Dive safe

Dean(thanks to Mark 'camdiver' Thorpe for the clothes)B

Hi

I have been stuck out at sea for ages and have had barely anytime to read any feedback from when I started this thread. So I greatly appreciate all your comments.

Now the other big concern is the excess baggage allowance too!!!! I cant afford $64/kg!!! I got 20kgs of video equipment to lug around. Its really depressing!!! I dont go anywhere without the camera......untill now maybe.....

Maybe we should get together a list of airlines with excess baggage alllowances.

I was hoping to have a diving holiday this year (never had one since I learnt to dive 10 yrs ago and worked in the touism dive indusrty ever since), but thats looking a bit grimm at the moment. At least I have my own thresher and hammerhead sharks to play with on a weekly basis at work and never get tired of trying to find them. Which is a very good reason not to leave my job.

But I would really like the pleasure of going out and filming something for myself for a change and not chasing divers around underwater all the time.

If it remains to be too expensive to travel with camera gear I just wont go.

Ciao

Seeesharky

Maybe we should get together a list of airlines with excess baggage alllowances.

http://www.farecompare.com/resources/airli...table/index.htm?

From my experience the number of tourists has dropped off dramatically and the amount of them with money to spare for a trip video has dropped off too.

The demographics have shifted too in that there is more SE Asian tourists now (In Palau) who have the money. The Korean market is growing however the majority of them don't dive, only snorkel.

The US market has totally dropped away and those that do make it out here don't have the extra money for a DVD where as before they were snapping them up as fast as possible. It doesn't matter how good the DVD is, people who can't afford it won't buy it.

It's the quiet season here at the moment. The Palauan Tourist Authority says the numbers are down by 26 percent, here at work it's the worst slow season they have ever known, what will be interesting is how busy the high season is and whether it is posible to make enough money to eek it out over the next slow season. Overheads are going up too, the food, the elecricity, everything is dependant on fuel and it's cost.

What also is pretty depressing is that there are so few buildings here, residential or commercial that utilise black panel water heaters on their roofs. I used to live in Barbados and every house even if it more resembled a garden shed had a black panel heater.

Big V8 4X4s will start to disappear and the smaller lighter cars will become more prevalent. But this is certainly not going to be a quick process unless the developing world also embraces "modern" car production, otherwise the developing world will only get our hand-me-downs.

The new technologies of energy production will be run by the same companies that provide us with energy now so it will always be kept in balance with the price of fuel, (conspiracy theory # 9768454) so there won't suddenly be a new technology that makes hydrocarbon based fuels obsolete, that is unless the Large Hadron Collider produces something we don't expect when they fire it up at CERN later.

Buy a sailing boat and solar powered battery chargers and explore what's left of our beautiful planet.

Divers are way down here as well.

I don't think this time around a handful of greedy companies will be able to control the main energy source.

The car manufactures will start making the hydrogen cars due to demand....they already know how to make them.

Other small companies will start making home generators so users can fill their cars at home for the small trips powered by the grid, LPG, wind or solar.

Anyone with a block of land beside a county road would be able to build a hydrogen farm and sell hydrogen to the folks on long trips.

The cars get around 800 km anyhow.

Farms can be powered by wind, sun or algae, while the water comes from rain or pump it out of the ground by a windmill.

I think that the oil-gas-coal companies are so stuck up themselves that they will miss the boat when it comes to hydrogen...it will be a people's power and that will force the governments to take it on board as well.

Divers are way down here as well.

 

I don't think this time around a handful of greedy companies will be able to control the main energy source.

The car manufactures will start making the hydrogen cars due to demand....they already know how to make them.

Other small companies will start making home generators so users can fill their cars at home for the small trips powered by the grid, LPG, wind or solar.

Anyone with a block of land beside a county road would be able to build a hydrogen farm and sell hydrogen to the folks on long trips.

The cars get around 800 km anyhow.

Farms can be powered by wind, sun or algae, while the water comes from rain or pump it out of the ground by a windmill.

 

I think that the oil-gas-coal companies are so stuck up themselves that they will miss the boat when it comes to hydrogen...it will be a people's power and that will force the governments to take it on board as well.

 

In the near term, I think that the economics and thermodynamics of hydrogen production make it a pretty much losing game. Most hydrogen produced today is from steam reforming of natural gas which uses up a relatively cheap source of fuel to make one a bit more difficult to store. Photochemical splitting of water can't easily be done with off the shelf photovoltaics but rather needs multi-junction cells that are quite pricey. So if you have some land near the motorway and a few $M dollars you might be able to make a plant. I think the most promise is in fuel cells which I think are only about a factor of 2 away from real commercial potential. If only Moore's law holds here.

Hydrogen is not free energy - it takes energy to make it - and a lot of it. It is merely a good way to make portable energy.

Gasoline is also an excellent portable energy source with a lot of BTU/CC - and it already exists. You have to make hydrogen.

Cheers

James

So what it takes less energy/cost doing this?

1. Spending millions searching for a hole.

2. Dig the hole.

3. It's pumped or truck to a port and loaded on a ship.

4. The ship takes it to the other side of the planet.

5. It's unloaded and put through a refinery.

6. It's trucked to the service stations.

7. Then there is the cost in releasing pollutants to the planet?

Come on do you really think the energy and price cost in releasing hydrogen from water is more than all the above?

There are already a few small potable water powered fuel cells popping up.

Gasoline is not very efficient for ruining a engine ,about 23% of it's energy is used. It burns so slow you have to ignite it before the piston gets to TDC.

With Hydrogen it can be fired at TDC and you get twice the mpg with it.

OIL is an old boys club....to stuck up itself to see any change.

I know you work in that industry James.... but lest see what happens in the next decade hey.

I once heard an interesting quote:

The amount of energy that hits the earth in 1 hour from the sun would run the whole plants energy needs for 1 year.

Hydrogen is not a fuel...

Hydrogen is not a fuel?

Last I heard it's an element? And the most abundant one in the known universe? I can't wait for fusion power to come through. Then at least as the sea rises we just use up the extra water and also release more oxygen. :)

You guys are worrying about the cost of oil!! With the doller gaining nearly 40cents on the pound in the last few weeks, where are the Brits going to go for cheap camera gear/holidays now.

Im waiting for it to get soooo bad we end up like MAD MAX 2.... I've bought a bullet belt, high heels, leather chaps and a gimp mask.. And accessorized with a sawn off shot guns and a Bowie knife... Im the LORD OF THE WASTELANDS !!!!!!!

Enough about your personal fetishes, what about the Mad Max scenario