19 Oct 2006
Despite popular belief, the world is not running out of oil, UW scientist says

Ya know, I'm not a geologist, but I have got a brain, and I think it's pretty safe to say that is nonsense.

"The most common question I get is, 'When are we going to run out of oil.' The correct response is, 'Never,'" said Eric Cheney. "It might be a heck of a lot more expensive than it is now, but there will always be some oil available at a price, perhaps $10 to $100 a gallon."

"Never" is a long time, you idiot.

The Earth is not making more oil or natural gas or coal. Those are products of biological processes, and it no longer has the correct ecosystem to create them. Given that the Earth is a finite body, there's a finite amount of oil available for extraction at any price - and a lesser amount available for extraction at an economic price people are willing to pay.

Furthermore, those mineral resources that are not products of biological processes were all present in the Earth at it's formation - they're not just generated willy-nilly on planets, they're made from the lighter elements in the nuclear furnaces we call stars. So unless he's discovered a hidden fusion engine that creates new gold, iron, silver and other minerals deep in the Earth, we're going to be running out of those as well.

We will run out of oil. And other mineral resources. All of them, That's not geology, nor is it the whining shill of a oil company hack - it's simple common sense. The only real question is when.

The foremost myth about resource geology is that the world is running out of oil, a University of Washington geologist says, and he wants to dispel that and other false notions about mineral resources.

(link) [EurekAlert!]

13:58 /Technology | 4 comments | permanent link