It's hard to say exactly. Based on our projected consumption, there are estimates that we have about 100 years of oil remaining. Other estimates are less optimistic. Granted this is specifically oil, but I'm sure our gas and coal reserves won't last long either. Eventually the rising cost of fuels will make alternative energies more economically feasible. I suspect at that point we'll turn our attention to finding a new way to power our planet. The oil and gas companies can't win forever. I'm less concerned about running out of fossil fuels and more concerned about the damage they'll have caused to the environment. We're at a tipping point right now. If we keep going down this road, there won't be a way back. But hey, maybe we'll figure out cold fusion and everybody can live with free energy.
[quote name='"StonedOpossum"']It's hard to say exactly. Based on our projected consumption, there are estimates that we have about 100 years of oil remaining. Other estimates are less optimistic. Granted this is specifically oil, but I'm sure our gas and coal reserves won't last long either. Eventually the rising cost of fuels will make alternative energies more economically feasible. I suspect at that point we'll turn our attention to finding a new way to power our planet. The oil and gas companies can't win forever. I'm less concerned about running out of fossil fuels and more concerned about the damage they'll have caused to the environment. We're at a tipping point right now. If we keep going down this road, there won't be a way back. But hey, maybe we'll figure out cold fusion and everybody can live with free energy.[/quote] But you forget humans are a force of nature also.
But the conversion to alternate energy is gaining everyday. We can pull through if we are smart about it.
We probably would have converted to other forms of energy by now if it wasn't for human corruption. I'm looking forward to when we run out of fossil fuels, I just hope that the economy can shift and adapt without to much trouble. Wouldn't want civilization as we know it to collapse, I keep all my money in banks in this current one.
I'm hoping long before then we'll have perfected Nuclear Fusion. If we can do that we've pretty much got unlimited clean and cheap energy. I think ITER in France will be done in 2017 and after that the ball will properly start rolling.
You have to remember were human,we have already destroyed our planet beyond repair. And as is 90% or the population doesn't give a shit.why should we think there Gona start caring now?
I agree that the majority of people are short sighted and a bit simple, but I have faith that the best humanity has to offer will show through eventually. We're capable of so much, we just need to survive a couple more centuries. I don't disagree that we've destroyed a lot of our planet, but Earth will recover when we're gone and will probably be around a lot longer than we are. I think Fusion will happen because it means free (basically) energy for the entire world, as well as being environmentally very clean, it just makes logical sense. Also the fact that we've started building the first reactor and it's on track gives me quite a bit of faith. Not everyone, or even a majority, needs to care, just a few clever people.
[quote name='"hippison"']You have to remember were human,we have already destroyed our planet beyond repair. And as is 90% or the population doesn't give a shit.why should we think there Gona start caring now?[/quote] That's a very pessimistic view and one that is also not backed by science.
[quote name='"420stonedpanda"']I'm hoping long before then we'll have perfected Nuclear Fusion. If we can do that we've pretty much got unlimited clean and cheap energy. I think ITER in France will be done in 2017 and after that the ball will properly start rolling.[/quote] Uhmm... Sorry but no. Nuclear energy is being banned in countries all over the world. Right now it's too expensive, and dangerous. Did you know hydroelectric dams can produce 16 times the amount of energy a liquid metal fast breeder reactor can?
Look up Fusion mate, you're thinking about fission. Fusion is basically harnessing the power of the stars and using it for power.
There is an abudance of coal, particularly in the US and China - and I would predict that coal-to-liquid/gas technologies will be honed in in the next few decades.
[quote name='"420stonedpanda"']Look up Fusion mate, you're thinking about fission. Fusion is basically harnessing the power of the stars and using it for power.[/quote] We don't really need a fusion reactor. We have a free one. We can put satalites in orbit around the sun to gather energy and beam it back to earth for free power
[quote name='"DrSheldonCooper"'] I don't think we can. Or that we are anywhere near that.[/quote] We have both wireless energy transfer and solar power. So what's stoppping us?
Good point, but I think we're far closer to making our own Fusion reactor than we are to large scale wireless energy transfer (could be wrong about that, I don't really know much about that topic). Also, the space around Earth is so packed with satellites and junk, do we really want to have a huge array of energy satellites parked up there which are susceptible to little meteorites etc when we can just have a few miniature suns in a box here on earth.
The technology is very limited. And the obstacles to overcome would be astronomically expensive. Sending energy 93 million miles back to earth, through the massive electromagnetic fields of the sun, using technology that relies on short distance energy transfer, is simply not a feasible idea. Would it work if we spent enough time and enough money, maybe. But that would hardly make it free energy by any mile. The technology isn't there yet for something like this. The concept might be, but not the technology.
Not quite. The technology is rapidly improving, especially when you combine other sources such as geothermal, solar, and nuclear power and the ROI is far greater than the invested energy, giving us a net energy source. In some places like Hawaii, the so-called "infeasible" grid parity has been achieved with solar energy. What this means is that it is more economically feasible to use solar energy rather than fossil fuels for private industry without any government incentives. Based on this, its only a matter of time before solar energy becomes as widespread and ubiquitous as fossil fuels is currently.