What are we going to do when all the oil runs out?

Question

What will happen when all the oil runs out and we cant use our cars and heat or houses? Are we going to change our way of living before all the oil has gone? Or are we going to suffer after we realise theres nothing left?

But some resurchers are saying that if the world, not just the UK, carries on the way we are going then it will be gone buy 2010! Its not that far way, how can people just shrug there sholders?

Answer 1

Long before oil runs out we'll have developed cleaner and hopefully cheaper alternatives ! ! !

Answer 2

Before the oil runs out completely, it will start to gain in price. The higher the price of oil, the more incentive for people to switch to other sources of energy. In purely economic terms, the oil will take a very long time to run out because by the time there is very little of it left, very little of it will be mined due to everyone having switched technologies.

On the other hand, this is just based on standard economics. It's quite possible that someone could screw with those economics. The government and/or the major oil companies could find some way of storing up oil and collectively keeping the price down right up until the point where they run out of stores, then let the price skyrocket and cause the collapse of a civilization that failed to develop alternative technologies. Being the only ones with access to the expensive oil, they would rule a rather dystopian world in which they build themselves giant fortresses around which the peasants practice their medieval agriculture and wait for the eventual extinction of the human race.

Answer 3

Panic aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh,

No seriously the oil companies are already developing bio fuels, that cover the whole scope of different bi-products of oil. Thus meaning that the oil is being used to maximum potential.
The price of a barrel of crude is quite high at the moment anyway, so there will inevitably be price rises at the pumps.
But this will just encourage more people to switch to hybrid engines, or LPG, or bio fueled engines when they are fully developed.

I'd prefer to see more use of wind generators for our electric, and things like vegetable oil in our cars, but there would probably be just as high duties to pay on using recycled chip fat to power your motor, as filling up with normal petrol at a pump, as our government can't stand to see us make money , under their noses,,,,,
the swines.

Answer 4

Actually, the way it will work is that the oil won't just suddenly be gone, instead it will increase in price as we have to dig harder to get less and less. As the price increases over the next few decades (especially considering China's rapidly-increasing demand), alternatives, though more costly now, will become cheaper by comparision. Solar and other green energy sources will become cheaper per watt than oil, rather than more expensive as it is now. And electric vehicles will become cheaper per mile. But it will be a gradual process, perhaps so gradual that you barely notice it. But one day you'll wake up and notice, there's no more gas-powered cars or oil-fired electricity plants, and you'll go "Gee, I guess that old guy on YA was right!"

Answer 5

Ask the conservatives in this country- they're the ones that block legislation and funding for alternative fuels and mandatory conservation measures.

And for all of you that say, we'll figure it out when it happens, don't you realize that would be MUCH too late? The changes need to begin NOW; it's naive to believe otherwise.

Answer 6

No. 1. Use of alternative energy is very much possible.

No. 2. The U.S.A. is keeping a large untapped resource of oil wells. U.S. is exploiting the Gulf countries' oil resources, keeping its own resource for the future when the rest of the world runs out of oil!

Answer 7

It happened to me once.

All the oil ran out of my car. I had changed the oil and had forgot to put the sump plug back in. It ran down my driveway and I had to mop it up. I went back to Halfords and bought some more.

So thats the answer. When the oil runs out, go and get some more from the store.

Answer 8

There are many sources of energy that we can use - the problem is not of quantity, but price. With current technologies oil is still the cheapest energy source, but that is likely to change in a not so distant future.

Answer 9

Live as people did before oil was the life blood.

Answer 10

It won't run out. We have reserves for hundreds of years. Reserves means it can be extracted profitably at todays prices. If the price increases as it will when it becomes scarce, the reserves will increase dramatically. New technologies will certainly be developed way before then. There are huge reserves of methane hydrates on the bottom of the ocean. Solar in its various forms may provide some alternatives. Then there is nuclear with fusion and fision. Fision is certainly a great possibility in a few decades.

Answer 11

we'll change our way of living, we already have the technology to run cars on other fuels, notably vegetable oil but don't take advantage of it, when the oil runs out we'll use alternative fuels.