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Since our energy consumption has grown exponentially in modern industrial times, most of the energy consumed has been during the age of oil. Further energy is n

Since our energy consumption has grown exponentially in modern industrial times, most of the energy consumed has been during the age of oil. Further energy is not the only dependency modern civilization has on oil. You can't glibly dismiss Goodstein's analysis. He addresses this belief (canard) that we have hundreds of years of coal in the ground, or that the resource limitations which restrict the future of oil do not also apply to coal. To replace the energy, fuel, industrial and agricultural uses of oil, coal consumption would have to increase by at least 5x, with catastrophic environmental consequences. Goodstein also points out the unreliability of estimated reserves, which in many cases are political rather than scientific.

Retric 11y ago
Actually farming still consumes vastly more energy than oil has provided. 1kw / m^2 is a lot of energy even if plants suck and significant parts of the globe have been under cultivation for thousands of years. http://www.zmescience.com/research/us-navy-synthetic-jet-fuel-seawater-0423432/ http://www.zmescience.com/research/us-navy-synthetic-jet-fue... US navy synthesizes jet fuel solely out of seawater; costs $3-6 gallon Wind is already cost competitive with coal. Sure, if oil was going to run out in 10 years that would be a huge issue, but when we have 50+ years to deal with the issue and it's bound at ~3x current costs it's just not that huge of a problem. PS: The navy is interested in this because shipping fuel around is a major issue for them where nuclear reactors can provide plenty of energy.