Fossil Fuel Extinction int he next half-century.?

Question

Well the government has been tossing subsidies on oil for a long time now, and almost none for new perpetual energy such as wind or biofuels. As the next 50 years roll around oil reserves will no longer meet the demand of the world,and the cost of extracting will exceed that of the yield. So what are we to do? The argument that we cannot support alternative fuel source programs currently due to lack of money is bogus. Why not shift out subsidies of fossil fuels which will depelte and put them into the alternative fuel sources, viola, it's been payed for. Which alternative fuel sources will meet the similar demand oild has. Hydrogen? Solar? How about coal burning and electiricity? We have plenty of it, but how much longer is the atmosphere going to take a beating? Do we implement wind? Wind turbines destroy the landscape view for people i think is a popular argument. We can build those out at sea too :). So how will we face this crisis. Food for thought.

Answer 1

I think you are talking about the "peak oil" theory, which postulates that at some point, we will (or we already have) identified all the inexpensive sources of oil, and in order to keep consuming it, we will have to tap more and more marginal reserves at higher costs.
As much as I'd like to think that the world will throw off it's dependency on oil and other polluting fossil fuels, it's going to be economics that drives us towards new energy sources. There is plenty of oil left, the question is whether it is economically viable to extract it. The energy companies have too much power over our politicians for governmental regulations to seriously impact them.
Once oil prices go up, people will turn to other energy sources, most of which happen to be less polluting than oil. I believe nuclear power will make a comeback as it is a echnologically mature solution, but as wind, solar and other sources of energy receive more investment and are developed, we will see these come into greater use as well.
Oil and other types of fossil fuels will probably never entirely disappear, but I hope they will start to make up less of our overall energy use. One way to encourage this is not to subsidize other technologies, but to cease subsidizing oil. Once the true costs of each alternative can be fully realized by consumers, they will make their own choices as to what is best for them. By simply ceasing to subsidize oil companies, we will let the free market (Republicans are supposed to love this, anyway) choose the best solution.

Answer 2

Well, we have compressed natural gas, which is less fossil fuel, and costs less. Some cars are being developed that uses CNG. We have hybrid cars, im sure you know what that is.

next fifty years, im guessing we will work on solar, nuclear, and dam. Solar, it only converts 20% ish of total light energy to electrical energy, but as technology increases, im sure 20% will turn to 80%. Nuclear, we have a device that simulates the actions of stars, which in turns makes energy. It supposedly uses 1/10th of what it makes, but nowdays, it can only be sustained for less than a second. Most people says that fuel will be hydrogen, so im guessing that too. Wind turbines not so much because as you said, it will take up space, and its not super super efficient, especially on non-windy days.

We have holes in our ozone layer, so we have to be extra cautious of how we send CO2 out in the air.

Answer 3

Maybe our fossil fuel dependence is like the Internal Revenue Service. Illogical and destructive, but so woven into the fabric of our lives that it would be to much of an upheaval to disrupt it. But at least the fossil fuel thing will burn out on its own, maybe. Don't worry. We'll be fine!

Answer 4

We should do what we should have done a long time ago. Invest in multiple energy sources, diverisifying the consumptions of fuel sources so that we could avert a deadly gloabal addiction to a single fuel source.

Answer 5

we ran out of coal already, did you notice it?

when we run out of oil and gas we'll using wind or solar power or ethanol. The technology exists already, we're not using it too much b/c we did not run out of oil yet.