i'm looking for the answer to 'what will happen when all the coal runs out? is coal renewable?' because i'm look in for the answer for my yr 7 science fuel work and i'm trying to find out wich is best!
p.s i'm not looking on here for a cheat!
2007-12-14 04:30:36 · 9 answers · asked by c_rick2003 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Coal is believed to form from plant/animal remains that get burried and eventually converted to carbon (mostly). Technically, it is renewable, since this process is still going on, but It takes millions of years to form so, it's not fast enough to keep up with our use!
The way things are heading, we will probably all be dead from war, pollution, global warming, bizzare diseases, etc before the coal is all used up.
2007-12-14 04:38:32 · answer #1 · answered by Flying Dragon 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Coal is a non-renewable resource and it takes to millions of years to create coal. If a source is burried now for coal it would be created after millions of years which would be used then. The coal which we are using now is formed from the sources which were burried millions of years ago. It's not possible that all the coal runs out. Coal is produced everyday but due to it's high use it is something considered as negligible.
2007-12-14 04:43:50 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Coal takes million of years to form, so is not renewable on human time scales. Plant matter has to be buried under hundreds of feet of earth and rock for the pressures required to make it, for example. That takes time to occur naturally. Most coal today was formed during the Carboniferous period hundreds of millions of years ago when conditions were unusually conducive to its formation (Continent-spanning swamps). We'll just have to come up with something else when it runs out. Fortunately, there are options like nuclear, wind, solar, and (for fuel) plants.
2007-12-14 05:02:14 · answer #3 · answered by Dr. R 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
when coal runs out, the train industry will be screwed.
Maybe they are just milking the earth for the last drop of coal, and they already have an alternative fuel source lined up that they aren't telling us about. Why would they switch before the coal has run out, there is still millions and billions of dollars to be made using coal.
2007-12-14 04:42:25 · answer #4 · answered by KEYNARDO 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Coal's only renewable if you're willing to wait about 200,000,000 years.
When the coal runs out, we'll have to find a way to make granite combustible. One way or the other, we're eventually moving to solar, wind, and geo-thermal power to heat our buildings. Coal's just too costly and in too short of supply.
2007-12-14 04:34:41 · answer #5 · answered by Juniper McClintock 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Coal is NOT a renewable fuel.
Once it has run out, it has ran out, although the earth constantly produces more, we are using it up quicker than its being produces, therefore when it runs out, we will have to turn to alternate means of energy.
2007-12-14 04:33:58 · answer #6 · answered by Pet Slinki 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
when coal runs out we will have to change to another fuel source.no its not renewable
2007-12-14 04:34:19 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
i assume it is meant to get comments re: drilling for Oil in Antarctica .. So my answer is 'definite' (a good style of the technologies which would be required is already being stepped forward and deployed interior the Arctic ..)
2016-12-11 04:39:17 · answer #8 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We'll have a cleaner planet, and the government will have to investy into another source of energy.
2007-12-14 04:33:48 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋