How near is the Earth to exhausting its fossil fuels?

Question

In other words how long can the earth support our way of life? WIll there be a time when there are too many inhabitants for the amount of resource? I include food and fresh water in this question.

Is there a point of no return and if so how long have we got?

Fossil Fuels will not last forever - they are finite and take millions of years to replenish.

What is the innevitable crash? when could it happen? is there not a point of no return towards this crash?

Answer 1

I watched a video the other day that said about 50 years!

Answer 2

I agree with Favoured.
From an economical point of view we have about 50 years worth of fossil fuels left. This takes into account 'reserves' which are calculated by estimating how much oil there is in each field which is economically viable to extract. There may still be oil left but it's too difficult to extract or is going to cost more to extract than the company will make. The little bit that's left is not included in the 50 year calculation.
Most of the really big fields have already been found so this figure is not going to change drastically.

I think that we will be able not sustain something close to our level of life the way we have it now. We have the technology (renewables, nuclear, etc) but not the inclination to really make it work just yet. When it starts to look desperate then things will start to happen.

As for other resources - in some parts of the world they've already run out. Again, it'll take some of the 1st world countries to suffer a bit before anything will get done.

One thing we will always have an abundance of is inequality.

Answer 3

I disagree in part with the common thread of "running out of fossil fuels"

The earth will not run out of fossil fuels, but it will become more and more costly to extract what remains. This depletion will take several hundred years, and humans will develop and use other fuels.

I work in the petroleum industry, and see first hand how it is driven by the economy. Wells that could produce gas or oil are abandoned because they won't produce enough to be worthwhile. The shortage that we feel is simply the beginning of economic pressure to change fuel sources.

I'd say clean fresh water is the most limiting factor, but even there, there will be econoomic pressure and adaptions. On a recent visit to California, I saw fresh water being used to water lawns. You say, "so what," well this water was running off the lawn, down the gutter 6 inches deep. The busines was watering its 200,000 square foot warehouse facility's lawn during the Santa Ana winds, and the sprinkler heads were misting because they were overpressured. There were dozens of these facilities doing the same thing.

The real problem presently is not lack, it is lack of effieciency and concern. Until economic motivation comes to change, "our way of life" will continue on, but definitely not for long.

Answer 4

This is disputed more than climate change. Though to deny it will ever run out is like denying our next generation any other alternative.
I believe oil (type oil crisis and search) has about 30 years left, although at $100 a barrel, will price out many consumers. Cheap oil is the question. That definitely is never going to happen any more. It it costs to much to recover, then the oil industries will go bust. This will have a huge knock on effect for future discoveries. This is when prices rocket. Inflation goes through the roof, unemployment is greater than the workforce and standards of living for 80% of the population falls below the poverty line. And mass riots begin. The lights will go out, production stops and starvation will engulf the UK.
All this and more from say about 30 / 40 years from now.

Answer 5

There is some evidence from the UN that suggests that we passed into the danger zone for population on this planet in 1987, with about 5 billion people. We're now 20% more in less than 20 years. We can turn some things back and halt others but the longer before action is taken the harder and more drastic will the measures needed be.

Answer 6

A lot longer than some people would like you to think

Saudi Arabia recently announced they have enough for about 200 - 300 years.

Canada is just about to start producing oil in the Alberta area. They claim this area alone can completely support North America for 100 years +

Now that the Big Oil companies are being threatened with competition form Bio-Fuels such as Bio-Diesel and E85 Ethanol, they are suddenly finding lots of oil.

Answer 7

No. There is no "point of no return". It's just that the sooner we start to recognise the need to change our current profligate use of finite non-renewable/non-sustainable resources, the less immediate and the less devastating the inevitable "crash" will be.

Answer 8

there is 200 years worth of coal left in Britain.50 years in the middle east .200 years in Antartica.There is loads left.Nature has ways of dealing with things .The whole population of the world can fit on the Isle of Wight.Its just media scaremongering to sell papers

Answer 9

Well, people have told me that its going to be in about 30-50 years time.

Which isn't long!!

So I guess I'm just savouring every moment! Hope you are too!

Answer 10

not really the they keep dying so they keep beang fossils the glaciar ar melting so there still fresh water and there ar states like tenesse nad tiny islands with trees fruits and vegetables so that docent scare me