What will we do when the oil runs out?

Creative83

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/06/28/the-world-was-533-years-of-oil-left/11528999/

Granted, the article is 3 years old but it raises an important question. What the hell are we going to do when oil runs out :O Pretty much everything you own, eat, wear etc is a byproduct of oil.

Nuclear & renewable energy power may provide our electric power but it won't create things like plastics the way oil does.

It's actually a very scary scenario if the worlds oil supply dwindles. Wars will start over it. Bio-fuel might do a bit to offer some hope but at the moment it's not advanced enough to satisfy any kind of demand... and it may never be.

Anyone have any ideas? Seems hopeless :O Modern life destroyed without oil.

jacksie66

This post has been deleted.

Roger Hassenforder

I thought the oil had run out the other day, but it was just an air lock.
Still I'm going tampering with the thermostat so it read slightly higher than it is...
that'll teach her

Doltanian

Coal can be used to create Synthetic oil using the Fischer Topsch Process. There is loads of oil left and there will be a shift away from it before it ever runs out. There is massive oilfields untapped under Antarctica and the Polar North, Venezuela and the Athabasca tar-sands alone could fuel current consumption even at current growth rates for the next 150 years. The global Population will peak around 2075 and decline thereafter. Wars will be fought and plague and pestilence will also reduce consumption.

blanch152

mini_Sapphire wrote: »

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/06/28/the-world-was-533-years-of-oil-left/11528999/

Granted, the article is 3 years old but it raises an important question. What the hell are we going to do when oil runs out :O Pretty much everything you own, eat, wear etc is a byproduct of oil.

Nuclear & renewable energy power may provide our electric power but it won't create things like plastics the way oil does.

It's actually a very scary scenario if the worlds oil supply dwindles. Wars will start over it. Bio-fuel might do a bit to offer some hope but at the moment it's not advanced enough to satisfy any kind of demand... and it may never be.

Anyone have any ideas? Seems hopeless :O Modern life destroyed without oil.

It really doesn't matter, if we are still using oil in 53 years at the current rates, then we will have a climate problem so serious that it won't matter. Usage rates will drop and the 53 years will increase as a result.

What is more important is whether there are enough raw materials for the future solar, wind-power and battery demand.

Creative83

blanch152 wrote: »

if we are still using oil in 53 years at the current rates, then we will have a climate problem

No we won't.

Hector Bellend

Have a cup of tea and a ****

BorneTobyWilde

Can always grow oil, hard for it to run out if you keep growing it. Fly over Germany in summer and it's a sea of yellow, fly over Ireland it's a sea of green, empty fields doing nothing. Should be growing oil like germany, and making HVO from it, not Biodiesel, that is so 90's, HVO is the new diesel fuel made from same product, grown oil or waste vegetable oils. It's a drop in fuel, no alterations needed.

Captain Slow IRL

Doltanian wrote: »

............The global Population will peak around 2075 and decline thereafter............

On what basis are you saying this?

Charlie19

Anytime we run out of oil, we just light the fire.

Creative83

Charlie19 wrote: »

Anytime we run out of oil, we just light the fire.

It's not about electric power... it's that everything in modern life derives from oil....

Dr Brown

It won't run out any time soon they have been talking about "peak oil" since the 19th century.

Even in the 1970s they were saying oil would run out within 30 years.

Rumpy Pumpy

Shouldn't be a problem. I was at a conference this week where the largest utilities in the world were doing nothing only boasting about their decarbonisation efforts. Seems to have moved from talking about it, to actually doing it. Plenty of challenges remain around balancing the grid, battery storage, security of supply, but nothing that technology and smart minds won't solve. All making plays into the electrification of transport and heat, home energy services, pan-European interconnectors as well.

We'll always need oil, but I'm a huge believer that it won't be long until we stop burning it.

Tuco88

Im sure we will be long past our sell by date then and get to enjoy the start of electric days. I will enjoy the last of our turf/coal/oil/petrol/diesel days for sure.

Nothing like seeing a steam engine in action... 100 degrees+ heat from a coal fired engine, black from coil/smoke,grease and sweat from the shovel and controls... And deaf from the dog barking at it.

1 bag of coil for about 50m going a steady 5mph.
Smoke as black as the hob from the stack, boiling water and steam all over the place...

Top if off with fried eggs and rashers and tea done on the engines fire..

A screaming F#ck you from the golden age to the environment, saying feck it ill be dead anyway...

zl1whqvjs75cdy

Mad Max for real obviously

Fr_Dougal

I'm a vegan, I don't use oil. Can't be sure that those animals died of natural causes.

elperello

Don't worry Bord na Mona to the rescue.
They have a cunning plan -
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/energy-and-resources/bord-na-m%C3%B3na-to-spend-60m-on-us-plant-1.3226416

RobbingBandit

Soylent fuel.

Beasty

They can go back to the old ways and cremate me in a pyre of bushes/wood....

Outlaw Pete

Gender diversity in the workplace wouldn't be as popular, that's for sure.

Zebra3

Oil will never run out.

It will get to stage where the only oil left in the ground will take more to extract than is financially worth it.

donegaLroad

mini_Sapphire wrote: »

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/06/28/the-world-was-533-years-of-oil-left/11528999/

Granted, the article is 3 years old but it raises an important question. What the hell are we going to do when oil runs out :O Pretty much everything you own, eat, wear etc is a byproduct of oil.

Nuclear & renewable energy power may provide our electric power but it won't create things like plastics the way oil does.

It's actually a very scary scenario if the worlds oil supply dwindles. Wars will start over it. Bio-fuel might do a bit to offer some hope but at the moment it's not advanced enough to satisfy any kind of demand... and it may never be.

Anyone have any ideas? Seems hopeless :O Modern life destroyed without oil.

Did you ever watch a documentary called 'Collapse' by American reporter Michael Ruppert. He is a bit extreme but he deals with this very subject throughout the film, in fact thats where he gets the films title, because he argues that the increase in the worlds population will create a huge demand for oil and petroleum and will eventually cause a collapse.

steddyeddy

This is an area I'm involved in. In short biologically generated fuel is the future IMHO. The hydrogen engine's another option, but a long way off.

mark_jmc

Tell Saudi Arabia what we really think of them

steddyeddy

The thing is oil is also used to make petro-chemicals like PET, polyethylene polyethylene terephthalate acid and some aliphatic plastics.

Things like plastic aren't quite as renewable as we're being led to believe either.

Professor Moriarty

steddyeddy wrote: »

The thing is oil is also used to make petro-chemicals like PET, polyethylene polyethylene terephthalate acid and some aliphatic plastics.

Things like plastic aren't quite as renewable as we're being led to believe either.

Every minute, a truck load of plastic is dumped into the sea. By 2050, the weight of plastic in the sea will exceed the weight of fish in the sea.

donegaLroad

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Every minute, a truck load of plastic is dumped into the sea. By 2050, the weight of plastic in the sea will exceed the weight of fish in the sea.

I saw a youtube clip about some Dutch teenager who has come up with a temporary solution to this. The plan involves using large rafts with some way of collecting all the plastic pollution in the sea and recycling it on board. I'll try and find the clip (Im sure some people have seen this)

donegaLroad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmPHBhYaCR4

steddyeddy

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Every minute, a truck load of plastic is dumped into the sea. By 2050, the weight of plastic in the sea will exceed the weight of fish in the sea.

We have an enzyme that eats plastic and a system that converts the product into biofuels.

There's also bacteria evolving with the capability to break down plastic.

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/bacteria-evolving-eat-plastic-dump-into-oceans/

Drumpot

RobbingBandit wrote: »

Soylent fuel.

Anybody else read that like it was a Yorkshire man trying to say silent Fuel?

Rumpy Pumpy

steddyeddy wrote: »

We have an enzyme that eats plastic and a system that converts the product into biofuels.

Was that the utter claptrap that emerged from UCD a few years ago? Breathless endorsements from those involved, while the rest of the academic world cast a jaundiced eye at a University looking for a ranking point?