Do you think we will finally run out of gas?(oil)(fuel)?

Answer 1

There is a group under the loose heading of <> Who were loosely covered in last months edition of Harper`s.
The particular group was a more radical version that the journalist chose to cover but they have a website.
There is a very good article in this weeks economist hurry because they tend to sensor their material to subscribers only after a week or two.
If you don`t mind purchasing a book (you shouldn`t if you know anyone living in California, the Middle East, Austrailia, or Southern Europe because their water supplies are already dipping into the danger zones.)
A must read is Tim Flannery`s The Weather Makers
If you don`t read anything about the environment in the next year other than this in the next year. It should scare you enough to start recommending the book, getting rid of your car and answering other peoples identical questions on websites.


As for the absurd comment that the oil reserves off Mexico will save us.
There is only about enough reserves off the coast of Mexico (IF EVEN EXTRACTED to last the world at current consumption habits an extra six months ... see The New York Times, Washington Post, Reuters or any other major Newspaper since those are the first few I check in the morning and all of them had articles two mornings ago about the recent <>.
The cost of extracting the oil off the cost of New Mexico would be enormous and at current oil prices would just be barely profitable in comparison to extraction at other known sites.)


As for the girl who commented that we will run out of air before the time we run out of oil she is on the right track.
The area where my mothers anscestors have fished and hunted in the Yukon for the last ten thousand years is one of the first global climate change disasters, the second most notably is Sudan, Notably because for the last thirty years we the west have been blaiming it on over farming by the sudanese. Since the first studies were realeased by the UN in 2003 it has been known that the growth of the Sub-Saharian dessert should be more accureately linked to changes in weather patterns caused by increases in temperature and LACK of agricultural development.

Answer 2

Considering oil was first "drilled" in about 1940 or so, we will most definitely run out sometime soon. Some people say we have already passed the half-way mark of total world reserves some say we will pass halfway in 2050, either way there's not much left.

And besides being a fuel source, all of our plastics are made from fossil fuels. Look around you. How much stuff do you have that ISN'T made from plastic. What will it be made from five decades from now?

Answer 3

Richard Heinberg says this is the year of peak oil. The CEO of Shell Oil (I forget his name) agrees. He says that up until this year, supply always exceeded demand. This year for the first time, supply and demand were exactly in balance. So it looks like next year, demand will exceed supply. The Shell exec cited increased demand from China and India, as well as increased sales of SUVs in the U.S. over the past 5-6 years.

There are other reasons to think we have reached the tipping point, says Heinberg. The international agency that issues pumping guidelines allows oil-producing countries to sell a percentage of their proven reserves each year. To generate more income, these countries in the last few years have artificially inflated their "proven reserves" numbers in order to pump more crude. In other words, there isn't as much oil in the ground as we think there is.

Also, that recent find in the Gulf of Mexico is iffy. It's under water and five miles deep. The engineering to build a rig and pump that deeply will be staggeringly difficult. We need to be thinking much harder about alternative energy sources. And don't be thinking ethanol. It takes more fuel to produce and refine the corn that you get in the end!

Answer 4

Yes, natural oil is limited. Oil consumption around the world is increasing exponentially and eventually it will run out. You can't remake oil. When it runs out nobody can say for sure, but one thing is for sure ethanol is not the answer to our oil problems. If everyone ran there car on ethanol we'd have to curtail our eating of those products. It is just a smoke screen to make people think that everything is ok and it isn't even a quick fix.

Answer 5

Nothing last forever and the gas supply has to have a limit. Whether we are there now is soon depends on who you listen to. If just might be that before we run out of oil the damage to our planet will make us stop using hydrocarbons. Only time will tell.

Answer 6

Not for a long time. Before we would the oil companies would be funding alternate fuel methods to keep the income coming in. We will know when it is running out because it is what keeps the world going.

Answer 7

eventually, yes. But by then, they should have an alternative fuel. If we were more concerned with finding a cleaner burning, cheaper source of fuel than with padding the pockets of rich oil tycoons, then maybe we wouldn't ever have to worry about it at all, or the rapidly rising rate of gas prices either.

Answer 8

Eventually, but no times soon (think generations.) But if we would open our eyes and begin constructing nuclear power plants our dependence upon oil will be greatly reduced and our environment will benefit from reduced emissions. The rest of the world operates them with no problem, why is the USA, the world's more technologically advanced country, not continuing to use the power source it pioneered.

Answer 9

I saw a thing on TV once that claimed the world oil supply is destined to run out in about 50 years.......
Didn't see all of the show , so don't know how much truth is in it.

Answer 10

No new petroleum is being made, and we're using what's there at an increasing rate. Of course, it's going to run out! But, running completely out isn't what you've got to worry about. As it gets more scarce, things are going to get awfully squirrelly! Just wait and see.