Quote:
Originally Posted by Groundhog
The massive increase in oil use combined with limited oil supplies (no matter how limited they may be) means that it's still a matter of WHEN rather than IF. I don't think anyone really knows with any real accuracy when the supplies are going to start dwindling, but I just hope it's long after I'm gone and buried. Going to be a scary, scary time when it happens.
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Oil is our primary source of hydrocarbons, but it's far from the only source. The reason it's the primary source is because it's the easiest and cheapest source, also because of effecientcy. However, as the oil in the planet runs out, we'd have to turn to new sources, such as natural gas, extracting hydrocarbons from tar flats, or go back to using coal. There are a lot of sources to get hydrocarbons for energy, the problem is cost, but once the oil starts to dwindle, we'd be forced to go to new sources for hydrocarbons.
Coal was once our primary source, but we moved off of that to oil because it was better, even though coal is still plentiful. I'd be very, very surpised if we didn't move off of oil to something even more efficient as technology moves forward, long before we run out of oil.
Besides, it's not like we're going to wake up one moring, drive to the gas station and find out "Sorry, the earth just ran out of oil at 3:41 AM this morning. No more oil." It will be something we'll see coming decades in advance.