Is fossil fuels REALLY running out quickly, or do we still have time?

[DrBeer]

The problem of fossil dependency is multifaceted.
On the one hand, it is not quite right to talk about the "disappearance" of fossil fuels such as hydrocarbons. It is not entirely true. The truth is that these resources, which can be extracted technologically easily and at acceptable costs, are really scarce and their volume is shrinking. For the world economy, this clearly indicates that within 30-50 years (and this is the period that today's deposits are limited to), the cost of such a resource will have a very strong and negative impact on the economy.
Yes, there was also a problem "from the last century" - pollution of the environment by carbon dioxide emissions. I'm not ready to say how much it really has a strong and negative impact, as many statements turned out to be more populist than scientific.
Well and the third problem, which appeared after 2022 - for example, gas and oil have become a means of economic terrorization of the normal world by terrorist countries. Therefore, reducing the dependence of developed countries on such resources is a double benefit - freedom from the antics of inadequate regimes, the absence of forced sponsorship of terrorist regimes, diversification of the economy, and leaving resources that can be used for manipulation.

At the same time, I would like to note that normal countries that supply oil, for example, have been investing huge amounts of money in the development of alternative energy sources for many years, realizing that their wealth - oil - is not eternal. And only backward, savage regimes continue to mentally self-satisfy themselves by constantly repeating the song "oil will only get more expensive, without our gas everyone will freeze"

[franky1]

The thing they aren't telling us is how they're going to supply the needed electricity for all this demand.

there is enough surface area of planet so that the suns energy can be captured, there is enough water area/movement of rivers and seas that can be captured
the issue is the rare metals of the technology to do the capturing..... and now ill reveal the solution
nasa is not doing project artemis for science of knowledge of the universe.. its for rare element mining

there are more rare metals in a asteroid than in a plot of land on earth
(get 2 hard silica balls.. 1 you hang above your head like a Piñata. the other you throw on your backyard soil so it shatters, spreads like dust and mixes with the soil, then tell me which is easier to get large clumps of near-pure from.. answer: the Piñata(with the right technology))

Considering how a major part of their arguments for this replacement is "environmental related". Many electricity production methods are not as clean as they're advertised. For example the nuclear power plants create a lot of pollution and create "nuclear garbage" that hurts the environment more than fossil fuels specially if they're used at large like what they're planning on doing (replacing everything with electrical versions).

the fresh unused nuclear rods are very radio active.. and in solid form
when depleted after use. less soo radio active.. hint: depleted
the water cooling fluid (waste you speak of) is less radio active than fresh mined nuclear solids(pre used)..
but still in liquid form, waste can be hazardous if it spilled in the open air to evaporate and contaminate the air... so carefully putting it in the ground in the place they found the highly radio active solids is the answer

the whole "but it will toxify the land if you put it in the land" silliness is silly because the solids came from the ground and were more radio active/toxic when originally in the land..
same goes for oil sludge by-product of refining oil. put it back into the empty holes the oil came from

the 'toxic threat' problems only exist/persist if left on the surface to contaminate the air and water and SURFACE-land we humans come into contact with

[NotATether]

Some conspiracy theories suggest that this is a strategy by organizations like the WEF to control us. What are your thoughts? Is there a genuine and urgent need to embrace renewable energy, or is it merely a directive for the masses, giving time for the elite to stockpile valuable resources? I don't think it's about carbon emission though, since the electricity used is from coal generators... "They" just don't want us to use LPG & gasoline.

What does WEF even do? Most of them are so fat they don't even leave Davos.

WEF is full of lunatics but I feel that these kind of conspiracy theories involving them don't have any substance. There are much more practical reasons why people would think that electric versions of devices are (created) bad, like: Cost cutting on the part of factories, bribes (think Volkswagen emissions scandal), power failures, and maybe human stupidity as well.

[Spaceman1000$]

The government, at least in my country, has been aggressively promoting the shift from gasoline vehicles to electric vehicles, LPG stoves to electric stoves, and so on. Anything without electricity as the power source is now labeled as "bad." I find it frustrating for two reasons: firstly, it requires more money to buy new items, and secondly, I'm skeptical that the new items will perform as well as my old ones. Electric stoves lack satisfaction, and electric vehicles may struggle with long distances, among other concerns.

Some conspiracy theories suggest that this is a strategy by organizations like the WEF to control us. What are your thoughts? Is there a genuine and urgent need to embrace renewable energy, or is it merely a directive for the masses, giving time for the elite to stockpile valuable resources? I don't think it's about carbon emission though, since the electricity used is from coal generators... "They" just don't want us to use LPG & gasoline.

I think it has more to do with carbon emission, the government of your country wants to rapidly move to renewable source of energy, that is why maybe I feel they've instructed manufacturers to sort of produce some of the equipments that will use more of electricity instead of gasoline.

Don't be skeptical about the performance of the new electric materials, the manufacturers already know the standard and what to produce, so don't be skeptical about the usage, however you should be concerned about the amount of power these equipments might consume because I'm seeing your electric bill going up.

I don't see it as a conspiracy theory anywhere, I believe the government in your country is laying the needed environment for the new phase of our new reality that we are going to come into in the next 10 years or more. Forget about the mileage electric cars can go, with time production of electric cars that can go far distance will come onboard.

[Juse14]

Conspiracy theories about elite involvement and control may reflect a distrust of authority and institutions, but in fact, the transition to renewable energy is a collective effort and step to maintain the sustainability of the planet we live on.

A concern that arises due to the cost and performance of new equipment, this is a fairly common problem. Indeed, this transition often requires a fairly significant initial investment, as well as several other problems that must be resolved. Talking about the transition to renewable energy, this is not only a direction for the wider community, but also a response to the real challenges that are visible before our eyes related to climate change.

[Ozero]

Pressure on fossil fuels has increased dramatically since the Industrial Revolution. The world is also moving forward at a very fast speed and the population in the world is increasing day by day. Fossil fuels play an important role in fueling this growing population and development. Since fossil fuels are limited i.e. a fixed amount is stored underground, it is gradually depleting. Thus, a time will slowly come when fossil fuel will be completely exhausted, then the world will suffer from a fossil fuel crisis i.e. energy crisis. Many scientists and experts believe that we will run out of fossil fuels in the 21st century. So we should reduce the use of fossil fuels keeping in mind or thinking about our next generation and looking for alternative energy otherwise our future generation will face extreme threats.

Humanity needed to intensively search for new alternative methods of energy production as soon as they began to use oil and gas for this. This was not done because their use was relatively simple and cost-effective. On the other hand, oil and gas corporations severely prevented the invention and use of other methods of obtaining cheap energy, even to the point of physically eliminating inventors and their inventions in order to maintain their excess profits.

Gas and oil fields are really drying up and we should think better about using their remains not as fuel, but as raw materials for other industries, including food. Their use has become one of the reasons for the increase in average temperature on the planet by one and a half degrees. which is already almost a critical point for people’s lives. Therefore, in any case, humanity needs to switch to other types of energy use.

[yhiaali3]

I do not think that the issue has anything to do with a conspiracy theory. There is a real energy problem in the world, not only because of the depletion of fossil fuels from major reserve sources, but also because of conflicts and wars that lead to problems in fuel supply.

I see that there are political reasons, not just economic or environmental, because the main oil and gas producing regions in the world are the Middle East for oil and Russia for gas, and all of them have problems and conflicts, and this leads to disruption or delay in the arrival of these basic materials to Europe and also their use as political pressure cards on Europe does, as does Russia, so moving to renewable energy will have economic, environmental, and political advantages as well.

[btc78]

Whether or not the government has some kind of hidden agenda behind this, I still think that we should really start thinking about using renewable energy. When are we going to switch to more environmental friendly products? When there is completely no fossil fuel and our climate is damaged to the point of no return?

[oktana]

I don’t think that electric vehicles or devices will under perform. Though it is a new concept, but it works just as previous ones do. Tesla cars are electric, if you test the speed of the car, you’d see how fast and how it overshadows certain fuel-powered cars. Same as the electric stoves too, it works very well. The only concern should be the cost however, it’s a good thing to the world. If we can eradicate burning of fuel then hopefully the earth can be a better place and may exits longer.

[bitterguy28]

time to what mate?  electrical products work just as well if not even better than their counterparts

maybe you are just not used to electrical devices being used instead of the what we can call traditional ones but we have no choice because as of right now this is what we have as a solution if there are no more fossil fuels it will be extremely bad for the economy all around the world so we should not wait for that to happen before we start changing our ways

[franky1]

i do have to laugh when the big institutional influencers of the world talk about 'single use plastics'

if the world in one day stopped creating single use products. the by-product 'sludge' of petroleum refinement wont have as much demand to take the by-product to then use the sludge to convert to plastic products.. so it would remain as sludge

the reason single use plastic products is so cheap is because the toxic sludge needs to be made into SOMETHING else they will have stockpiles of waste at the refinery..

yes the sludge should be made into long-life plastic products like window frames, guttering that serve a purpose to homes for decades instead of a day. [insert many examples of long life use plastic products]
but the demand per barrel of sludge to become plastic for long term products is not there. hence why they literally give away the sludge to then be made into the cheapest most useless single use plastic things.. to stop a stock pile of barrels of sludge from piling up

..
the solution the big institutional influencers came up with decades ago is to continue to make single use plastics(big business in doing so).. also they need it off their property to not be their problem... so they continue.
however they then ask/demand citizens/consumers to then recycle the single use plastics, thus making it consumers problem. shifting the blame away from the petroleum refineries

[Troytech]

I think it's just a scheme to get us to adapt to a new system of living they have envisioned and created, some big companies and countries to make their citizen buy more of their products by enforcing it in a kind of way just earn more tax revenue off them, like in my country for a whole year only one company was producing cement while the government ban other companies and promoted that only that one company should continue producing cement u till recent time when the law was changed.

But anyway the effect of fuel on our environment is not the best, it has contributed to a lot if carbon in the atmosphere and using electric based products is not such a bad idea either.

[blckhawk]

My personal opinion on whether fossil fuels are running out or if it is exaggerated by governments & campaigners is that it is exaggerated. Fossil fuel reserves are finite & will eventually be depleted but the rate at which this occurs is influenced by various things. The environmental impact of fossil fuels & the need to transition to cleaner energy sources is quite important. The overall consensus is that diversifying our energy mix & reducing reliance on fossil fuels is crucial for a sustainable future but I do think that the whole ESG & green movement do exaggerate & FUD about fossil fuels.

The depletion of fossil fuels is going to be more rampant now even though there's a lot of renewable energy and nuclear energy that's being utilized now, a lot of countries are going back to using fossil fuels, the biggest story that I've seen in years is that Germany is going back to using coal for a reliable energy source but I don't believe that because they've also shutdown their last nuclear power plant and there's probably other countries out there that's following suit to what Germany has been doin, and the answer for OP's question is that it's not going to run out anytime in our lifetime at least, there's about billions of years of life that's existed before us which means that there's a lot of buried carbon somewhere on this planet not to mention that oil is still the most used fuel for cars and there's still a lot of oil deposits that aren't completely untapped by refineries.

I think we still have time too because even if these countries are going back to fossil fuels, the hydroelectric powerplants, geothermal plants, solar powerplants and windmills won't just suddenly stop working so with a split like that where people are still using other means of creating electricity and using different fuel, fossil fuels won't easily run out.

[Volimack]

Coal was the main driving force of the industrial revolution. Later renewable fuels such as oil or gas were gradually discovered. Today's world is hard to imagine without electricity. Most of the electricity is generated by burning these fossil fuels. Just what electricity people are constantly running around the world. The vehicles for this run are powered by fossil fuels no matter how you look at it fossil fuels have contributed greatly to this advance in civilization.

[DrBeer]

Coal was the main driving force of the industrial revolution. Later renewable fuels such as oil or gas were gradually discovered. Today's world is hard to imagine without electricity. Most of the electricity is generated by burning these fossil fuels. Just what electricity people are constantly running around the world. The vehicles for this run are powered by fossil fuels no matter how you look at it fossil fuels have contributed greatly to this advance in civilization.

I beg your pardon, but are you sure that gas and oil are renewable sources?! They're as much fossil fuels as coal.
As of 2022, the overall picture of resources that generate electricity is as follows:
In relative units, %
Oil 0.4
Gas 12.3
Coal 5.2
Atom 13.1
Hydro 60.4
Renewable 7.9
Other 0.7
                  

[AVE5]

The essence of introducing the electrical appliances to a society is a good one because it's easy, smart and lesser risk to be in use but the problem about it is that it is being too exorbitant in the fact that it requires regular maintenance which is expensive.

[Cryptomultiplier]

My personal opinion on whether fossil fuels are running out or if it is exaggerated by governments & campaigners is that it is exaggerated. Fossil fuel reserves are finite & will eventually be depleted but the rate at which this occurs is influenced by various things. The environmental impact of fossil fuels & the need to transition to cleaner energy sources is quite important. The overall consensus is that diversifying our energy mix & reducing reliance on fossil fuels is crucial for a sustainable future but I do think that the whole ESG & green movement do exaggerate & FUD about fossil fuels.

The depletion of fossil fuels is going to be more rampant now even though there's a lot of renewable energy and nuclear energy that's being utilized now, a lot of countries are going back to using fossil fuels, the biggest story that I've seen in years is that Germany is going back to using coal for a reliable energy source but I don't believe that because they've also shutdown their last nuclear power plant and there's probably other countries out there that's following suit to what Germany has been doin, and the answer for OP's question is that it's not going to run out anytime in our lifetime at least, there's about billions of years of life that's existed before us which means that there's a lot of buried carbon somewhere on this planet not to mention that oil is still the most used fuel for cars and there's still a lot of oil deposits that aren't completely untapped by refineries.

I think we still have time too because even if these countries are going back to fossil fuels, the hydroelectric powerplants, geothermal plants, solar powerplants and windmills won't just suddenly stop working so with a split like that where people are still using other means of creating electricity and using different fuel, fossil fuels won't easily run out.

Fossil fuel running out is perhaps due to the fact that many people have upgraded their energy demands or had to resort to using alternatives as the recent development emerged.
There's still time and until many borders decide to delve fully into renewable sources, there will still be those in their regions that depend on the use of fossil fuel for daily survival because that's what their current economic situation can afford.

[God bless u]

It can be what you're thinking about but there is less of a chance to do it. Actually world's population is increasing very rapidly and the fossil fuels are continuously used up since decades.As we all know these are not unlimited so we have to be careful while using them.People their selves don't bother to save the fossils or use it according to need because it requires a lot of sense of responsibility.Then organisations have to come into play because they know how to make people survive in this world.

The second side of the coin is also true to some extent.The big powers might think of converting people to renewable and storing the fuels for their usage.Thats almost out of our reach to have an eye on that so let's try to find our comfort zone and just live in it rather then thinking too much.

[bluebit25]

As I understand it, even if we switch to clean energy fuels, we cannot meet consumption levels. We have many different solutions as well as finding fossil fuel sources with large enough reserves to survive centuries.

But it's still realistic that when they run out (we don't know exactly when), civilization may have actually progressed very differently from what it is now. I can feel that some things are being applied in a too sophisticated and complicated way, the application of quantum physics in life has not been exploited much. So, in parallel, regenerating the earth, colonizing planets, improving human intelligence,... are all difficult solutions at the present time but will be the direction for us to solve the problem.

[someone703]

While the professor might be right about massive oil reserves lasting a while, dismissing concerns completely is like burying your head in the sand. Even if there's a ton of oil out there, it's not like a magic well that never runs dry, right? Eventually, it'll all be used up. Plus, burning all that oil is messing with the climate, leading to crazy weather and health problems – not exactly a recipe for a chill future.

Some countries rely heavily on oil for their income. But clinging to the past like a life raft won't help. We gotta adapt, homie. Investing in green energy and new tech might seem tough, but it's like learning a new skill – challenging, but worth it in the long run.