When fossil fuels run out, how long will it take for the earth to revert back to normal?

Question

From what I've heard, the earth's supply of fossil fuels will run out in the next century or so.

So my question is: how long will it take for the earth to repair itself from global warming, the enlarged hole in the ozone, the greenhouse effect, and all that other stuff we've caused by burning fossil fuels?

Now, I know that the earth will never completely "heal" itself, but how long will it take before the earth will more or less revert back to how it was before the industrial revolution?

Answer 1

I've been studying some of this stuff. While its true that oil will "run out" in 100 years we will have long since abandoned it by then. This is because we are fast approaching a peak in production. After we reach this peak, production will decrease while demand continues to increase. Gas and other products will become very very expensive which wil cause most people to abandon it, and hopefully by then we have found a better source of energy by then. As of now it looks like this could all come in the next 15 to 20 years, so hopefully we've got some engineers and scientists working night and day on the problem or we will be in trouble. As for the holes in the ozone layer and stuff, they will repair themselves eventually, most things should improve by about 90% in the next 50 years or so and will continue after that over the next century.

Answer 2

The holes in the ozone layer were not caused by global warming. This was cause by CFC's, that were used in spray-cans and cooling installations. A couple of month ago I read the hole in the ozone layer is getting smaller already because of the worldwide ban on CFC's. It will take at least 30 to 40 years to repair itself.
Even if we could and would stop emitting greenhouse gasses (CO2 and methane) completely right now, because of the lag in the warming of the "earth's temperature", it will continue to increase for at least a few decades. But in the mean time some self sustaining processes could already have been "ignited" so maybe we will not be able to stop it at all. These self sustainable processes are greenhouse gasses, that are stored in sea beds and in and under ice-masses, escaping because of rising water- and air-temperatures.
But it's not only the gasses we produce that will destroy earth surface. If we would stop using fossil products, we'd need a lot of earth surface to produce alternative fuels (wind, solar, agriculture for bio-fuels), so in that respect earth will still not be given a lot of chance to "repair" itself. Earth will repair itself (to a more stable bio-diverse state) when a lot of of people are removed from the earth surface, but this is not a very "human" solution. But if it would happen, nature will be covering cities again within a few decades. But there are droughts already in large parts in the world and in the future large parts of North and South America, almost the whole of Africa, and large parts of Asia will become deserts.
But hey, earth is always having climatological problems because of all sorts of reasons and life always comes back when circumstances allow it. Even if there's no "intelligent" life to destroy it all again before they realize that they should have enjoyed it in stead.

Answer 3

Do not worry there is already something in mkore sinister in hiding to replace fossil fuels.....For now fossil fuels are the economy of third workd countries...When no longer needed they will revert back to starvation and the West will prosper once more and control the rest of the world... Besides now that all the guys are wearing more perfume than the girls those noxious fumes have taken over fuel emissions.

Answer 4

there remains an fairly large oil furnish perfect. u . s . a . of america has an fairly large oil reserve, and the oil wells were capped off for a lengthy time period. the reason of this is because the authorities helps larger expenditures for imported oil than it does for significant different and children drilling. This, more advantageous than something else, is why oil expenditures a lot interior of u . s . a . of america. the expenditures are artificially inflated by technique of the oil organizations.