Will we run out of fossil fuels?

From our free online course, “Energy Within Environmental Constraints”:

Harvard Professor David Keith examines four factors that shape the long-run availability of fossil fuels.


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[redhen]

I love how all the experts are fixated on energy. Only half of every barrel of oil is used for energy. The rest is used to make thousands of products that we depend on in our daily lives.

[sceletox]

It's a replanishing resource. The only thing we are running short with is integrity, honesty and dignity

[PrayTellGaming]

So the answer is: let's keep digging and find out!

[kynchan]

Easy to access oil is becoming more difficult over time. Improvement in technology has still struggled to make most shale projects profitable with large cash injections from investors and government.

[themicdfiles]

The only part of this perspective I disagree with is the use of the term "fossil Fuels." Oil is not derived from dinosaurs. I can prove this to anyone who would take the time to visit me in Wyoming. I can prove in real time how it is an impossibility that oil is actually a "fossil fuel." I think the terminology is possibly an argument of semantics as we have been inundated with this idea that our vehicles actually run on dino juice, however it's equally hilarious that we do not associate nearly every other item we use in our daily lives to this "phenomenon." Our iphones are not something we perceive as a product of dinosaurs, nor are our computers, shoes, cameras, speakers, appliances, trash cans, trash bags, food packaging, auto parts, musical instruments, paints and coatings, anything that comes in a spray or pump bottle, garden hoses, plumbing parts, etc. For the love of all that's good and reasonable, this planet demands nearly 100 million barrels a day! Were the dinosaurs living like the factory workers in China who assemble our iphones and ipads, jump out the window to free themselves through death, only to be caught by nets made with petroleum, then escorted back to their work station? In order for this "fossil fuel" hypothesis to be accurate, the conditions for those nasty reptiles might have made them so ill-tempered. A cow will consume 26 pounds of grass per day...now equate that ratio per pound to a brontosaurus which consumed 1150 lbs of plant matter daily...there is no possibilty that these creatures were piled upon each other so heavily as to leave oil 6, 000 feet in the subterranean that would facilitate nearly 100 million barrels per day.

[daemoniumvenator]

I have a better question, are fossile fuels actually fossils? Or is it the earths blood, where magma and carbon are constantly compressed in a layer due to tempuratures, pressures, and the constant flow of tectonic plates... in a region that basicly allows the plates to slide smoothly, and one of the reasons we have more earth quakes is because we are removing this natural lubracant. When someone finds a pocket of oil on the surface, its only due to the fact that it slowly bubbled up to the surface, likely due to geographic qualities.

Its natural, and stable, due to millions if not billions of years of geological tectonic flows, and magma flows. It has absolutly nothing to do with animal bones.

[walkabout]

Is the Earth truly running dry of oil's embrace?
A struggle for resources, a global rat race,
In the depths of our planet, where black gold does hide,
The question persists, as we reach far and wide.

Beneath the Earth's crust, where time takes its toll,
Lies the treasure we seek, the source of our goal,
But as centuries pass, and technology soars,
The truth about oil, we can't just ignore.

The thirst for this fuel has driven us far,
From drilling in deserts to the depths of the tar,
Yet the Earth, in its wisdom, has limits, we find,
For oil is finite, not endless, we're inclined.

Fracking and drilling, we push the Earth's core,
For the fuel we rely on, forever craving more,
But what of the consequences, the price that we pay,
For the struggle for oil, day by day?

Environmental costs, a planet in strife,
From spills in the ocean to the loss of wildlife,
The Earth bears the scars of our relentless quest,
To harness the power that oil does manifest.

And in the realm of geopolitics, we see,
Nations in conflict over oil's decree,
A struggle for power, for control of the flow,
As the world's dependence on black gold does grow.

But in the midst of this struggle, there's hope to be found,
As we seek renewable energy, new paths on the ground,
For the Earth, though it's weary, still has much to give,
If we learn to protect, and respect how we live.

So, is the Earth running out of oil, we may ask,
It's a question that lingers, a formidable task,
But the answer lies not in the depths of the ground,
But in our choices and actions, where solutions are found.

[babaloo]

If energy production can't keep up with demand AND at the same energy input, then the standard of living of the average person WILL drop. Keep your eyes open and watch it happen. Cheap money WILL help get 'difficult to get oil' out of the ground, but the cost of the extra energy input necessary to do it won't go away. It just expresses itself in the inflation of prices of ALL goods and services. So in the end, the scarcity of EASY energy Will be felt by the average person. They just won't realize the source of the pain. Rich people will be fine though.

[Red-bwcu]

I thought oil is abiotic oil through serpentation also methane so abundant❤️

[edwardanthony]

Excellent short video. Just going to give a presentation on the same subject, and this was extremely lucid.

[adamselene]

You can NOT begin to talk about the origins of oil and its availability without FIRST talking about the fact that oil is NOT a FOSSIL FUEL.
THAT has to be the initial conversation.

[cowruday]

not a fossil fuel..he is $ driven..oil is oil not a fossil fuel

[dedosdigital]

A / No we will not, because, there is no such thing as Fossil Fuel, no fossil ever having been found at 20, 000 feet and deeper where oil is found . B / No we will not, because oil, wrongly named as fossil fuel is more abundant now than ever .

[stevederp]

my personal view on this has always been that once it was realized the immense value that oil will have in regards to advanced polymers, 3d printing, carbon fiber and other breakthrough technologies, they didnt want to waste those resources on other market demands. the biggest example of this being jet fuel. if less oil is consumed over the next 30 years by pushing us to electric cars, that will mean a larger amount of reserves will be there for the future to continue to produce jet fuel. Basically its a very simple principle that because cars are going on the ground the heavy batteries dont matter as much. while in the air a petroleum based fuel will always be needed for its power to weight ratio. meaning that airplanes with electric motors and batteries will be possible, but theyll be slower because we cant produce high level thrust without chemical reactions from hydrocarbons.

in a shorter term. rich people like private planes, so theyre going to make poor people switch to solar and electric cars so they can use all of the oil for their planes instead of wasting it on our cars. thats literally the main motivation for all of these polices. every wealthy and powerful person on this planet has a private jet, they fly in them daily and they are the most important part of their ability to control the world. they want to make sure theyll have ready access to that fuel for the next 200 years. so this is how theyre going to accomplish it.

[allantulli]

You are wrong about it running out, it is generated by earths core not fossils.

[jish]

Probably the big problem is that this is a finite resource that takes millions of years to make with a multitude of other resources needed. Because of this, we then have to look at how much oil we're digging up which is far greater than what the earth will ever be able to replenish. This means we could very well see the end of oil as a useable resource within our own lifetime if we continue the path we're on, especially when all oil reserves we're able to access dry up.

[beskararmor]

When I learned the size and abundance of coal sources across our planet I realized we will never run out of fossil fuels.

[ThePikeywayne]

Slightly off subject but isn't David Keith the same guy that spoke about weather modification, saying that we should use aluminium oxide but we will be passing the problem to our grandchildren

[skully_the_bandit]

is this college hardwarr im only in sekond grad help

[josephcollins]

Oil is not a fossil fuel it’s replenishes itself faster than we use it