How sure scientists know the energy sources will last for 20 or 30 years?

Question

Scientists said our oil only last for 20 or 30 years? How they make a calculations? Did they really know how large the ocean are?Did they really know how many reservoir down there?

Answer 1

I will try and answer your questions.

The scientist use statistical data to predict at what rate we consume the fuel that we have available. The compare amount of production, discovery of new sources, consumption and population growth, to come up with amn educated guess. See every model they create cannot account for the amount of
random variables that can occur.

Yes, they do know how large the ocean is and can estimate how much area as far as land there is to explore when it comes to the ocean floor. The answer to the amount of land is 139,397,000 square miles.

No, The cannot know for sure how much oil is located in the ocean floor. The can only predict where the resevoirs might be. That is why the search for oil is such an expensive process.

The 2 links I provided can answer your question in better detail.

I hope this helps

Answer 2

The true reason is cost. There are huge reserves of everything. In the seventies it was said oil would run out in 15 years ..... that really meant we'd run out of oil at 30p a gallon ! The more expensive it gets the more money is put into gathering more. Oil from ground sources will eventually be replaced as a fuel in the not so distant future but due to increasing cost rather than dwindling reserves. It's hard for other energy suppliers to compete with the extremely low cost of oil, a litre bottle of water costs a similar amount to a litre of petrol .... it's actually quite incredible when you think about it ! Petrol is still as inexpensive as water !!! Obviously there's lots of it around ...

Answer 3

They base their calculations off of known constants, but their calculations are subject to change like everything in life.