When will it be ALL GONE?

[NeilBlanchard]

Don't forget that the bitumen sands take about 1 barrel of oil equivalent energy to extract 2 barrels -- and the "oil" yielded cannot produce nearly as much fuel as traditional sweet or even sour crude.

Both sand bitumen and coal are incredibly dirty and they release a lot more carbon dioxide, accelerating global climate change.

We need to switch over to renewable energy before we *have* to.

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by ksa8907

What do you suggest we do?

You don't have to do anything. As those resouces become more expensive alternatives will take their places.

And once the polar ice caps are completely melted BP will have new places to drill.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by Patrick

And once the polar ice caps are completely melted BP will have new places to drill.

And who knows what else.

[niky]

While I agree it's rather silly to be counting down the days to the end of silver, since it's merely the end of cheap mined silver... after which we'll have to pay more for recycled silver, which is great for me, as I have a bunch of silver dollars and ingots.

We've already hit the peak of conventional oil. For the past three years since the collapse, the price and supply of oil have reacted to market conditions in a relaitvely inelastic way. The market can't afford more expensive oil and the producers can't produce oil from new sources at lower prices. However hard the hedgies and speculators try to push oil prices, it's stuck within a stable range, for now.

Even oil sands are suffering from the recession. They can't set up new refineries at less than $80 per barrel. The only reason we're even considering it now is because the huge price advantage of conventional oil has been completely wiped out.

Make no mistake. We will never run out of oil. There will always be some new reserve found or some process developed to extract it from something else. The question is... will we actually be able to afford it?

Brings to mind the term "peak demand"... Which is arguably where we are hovering around (in terms of oil) right now.

[redpoint5]

We've fallen for another Suspect drive-by, and here I am responding...

My petty complaint is about the graphic, and how unintuitive it is. What's wrong with traditional stats and graphs?

My major complaint is that these projections usually use current rates of consumption, or extrapolate out the exponential growth when there is no way to predict what will influence consumption in the future. Consumers will certainly respond to price change.

I wonder what the projected date of whale extinction was back in the oil lamp burning days just before electricity was put to use?

My last point is that the natural response to anything that is becoming scarce is to conserve it. The world cannot be destroyed/saved by exploiting/hugging it, so conservation is a valuable end in itself, without need of doomsday hype.

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...eliminate the USERS and the remaining MATERIALS/RESOURCES should last forever (sarcasm embedded)!

You think that's a joke, but these wackos are serious.

[Patrick]

Contraceptives are cheaper than gas.

[Frank Lee]

You think that's a joke, but these wackos are serious.

I don't think their viewpoint is any more valid (or invalid) than that of those that worship at the altar of perpetual growth.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

You think that's a joke, but these wackos are serious.

Yes there are anti populationist out there who think pretty crazy dangerous far out things.

[gone-ot]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Yes there are anti populationist out there who think pretty crazy dangerous far out things.

...yes, but *IF* they're really 'true' to their beliefs, they'll soon solve their own problem (as far as they'd know about) anti-Darwinism- wise.

[baldlobo]

people have been spewing death rattles, for a long time; the human population on this planet have over come alot by ingenuity

now what i'd love is goverments to kill urban sprawl; we'll all probably die from poor food supplies before any of the stuff on that chart matter(ps. anyone had a mcburger lately)

ps. i'm hoping for a wreaked alien spaceship; once antarctica melts