With rising oil prices, if countries decided to curtail their consumption - akin to a directed economy - to reduce purchases to a minimum and even refusing to buy above a certain value, what could that cause?
The first reaction I’d expect would be production cuts to hold the prices but, technically, those are already happening. Demand is just not following.
Oil is so deeply integrated into the food supply that millions would starve. Fertilizers are made from oil. Diesel powers the tractors that work the farms and the trains and trucks that bring the produce to consumers.
Diesel trains ??
Edit well shit, my bad, there are indeed trains that run on diesel
An interesting thing about diesel trains is that almost without exception the diesel engine is actually used to power generators rather than drive the wheels directly; the drivetrain (ahaha) is actually electric. Partially this is to reduce the number of moving parts, but it’s mostly because of the insane traction of electric motors.
One correction: torque, not traction. Traction is friction, torque is applied twisting.
Aha, that makes plenty of sense. Thanks for the lesson
don’t most trains run on desil or desil like fluids?
I have to admit my ignorance, I thought today’s trains were all electric
They basically work using a diesel generator hooked up to an electric motor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel–electric_powertrain
they are, the desil produces the electricity.