3 ms·

Do we really only have 45 years of oil left?!

• glup 8y ago
  This is very hard to estimate -- 1) the oil companies may find new sources 2) they may find that existing beds aren't as productive as projected 3) extraction methods could improve 4) the rate at which we are using it could increase or decrease. And of course the question at any given time is not how much oil exists but how much is economically worthwhile for someone to extract. But yes, the supply is certainly finite and between a few decades and a few centuries -- and while this seems like a small amount of time, it's not in comparison to how long it took for these deposits to form (tens to hundreds of millions of years).
• sp332 8y ago
  Not only that, but to meet global warming goals of about 2C, we need to leave a lot of what is left in the ground. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/07/much-worlds-fossil-fuel-reserve-must-stay-buried-prevent-climate-change-study-says https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/07/much-wor...
• fallingfrog 8y ago
  You have to keep in mind too that the flow of oil will start slowing down long before we get the last drop out. In fact it should start to slow down when about half of the total oil is extracted.