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Obviously this doesn't apply when speaking on the scale of millions of years, but I remember reading that there may not be enough easily accessible energy sourc

Obviously this doesn't apply when speaking on the scale of millions of years, but I remember reading that there may not be enough easily accessible energy sources (ie fossil fuels) left to jump start another industrial civilization if our current one where to collapse.

montagg 3y ago
Well, maybe in another 65 million years, whatever's around will just use us and the rest of this era's biomass as crude oil in the next cycle.
- anon84873628 3y ago
  Well, "why did so much coal form during the Carboniferous period" is an interesting question. One theory is that plants started to produce lignin (wood) and other novel compounds during that time, while fungi and bacteria had not yet evolved the ability to break them down. So lots of organic matter was piling up on the ground and not being released back into the atmosphere. (Fun related note, the oxygen level in the atmosphere rose to very high levels during this time, which enabled gigantism in insects and amphibians - organisms that depend on simple diffusion of oxygen for their respiratory system). Eventually all that organic matter could be buried and fossilized. So anyway, since fungi and bacteria are more evolved today, it's unlikely that such massive buildup of organic matter would occur again. Any given burial event would trap less organic material, so the resulting fossil fuel deposits would be smaller and it would take much longer for a given amount of carbon to be buried. Of course this is just one theory and there are many other factors in fossil fuel formation as well. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carboniferous https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carboniferous
ianburrell 3y ago
There are a lot of coal deposits left. A lot of them are near the surface, some exposed by mines. The downside is that they are far from current civilization since the closer ones have been mined. Wood was important in the US for industrialization. Unlike Europe, the US had lots of forests. Those might be enough for start. Also, we know how to make electricity from solar, wind, and hydro. They need electricity and good design so may not work in beginning but for later stages.
- wincy 3y ago
  Russia has essentially an inexhaustible supply of trees in the taiga if people were determined enough. The scope of the number of trees is absurd, with estimates that 18 percent of the worlds biomass is in the taiga.
- whaleofatw2022 3y ago
  Enough to start bit how far would we get? As a cynical young adult I always giggled at the 'coke express' train cars that flew by on the railroad tracks but nowadays I know what that means what it's used for and how we get it. I.e. so many of our modern industrial processes still depend on coal, and the alternatives often require huge energy inputs themselves.

montagg 3y ago

Well, maybe in another 65 million years, whatever's around will just use us and the rest of this era's biomass as crude oil in the next cycle.

anon84873628 3y ago
Well, "why did so much coal form during the Carboniferous period" is an interesting question. One theory is that plants started to produce lignin (wood) and other novel compounds during that time, while fungi and bacteria had not yet evolved the ability to break them down. So lots of organic matter was piling up on the ground and not being released back into the atmosphere. (Fun related note, the oxygen level in the atmosphere rose to very high levels during this time, which enabled gigantism in insects and amphibians - organisms that depend on simple diffusion of oxygen for their respiratory system). Eventually all that organic matter could be buried and fossilized. So anyway, since fungi and bacteria are more evolved today, it's unlikely that such massive buildup of organic matter would occur again. Any given burial event would trap less organic material, so the resulting fossil fuel deposits would be smaller and it would take much longer for a given amount of carbon to be buried. Of course this is just one theory and there are many other factors in fossil fuel formation as well. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carboniferous https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carboniferous

ianburrell 3y ago

There are a lot of coal deposits left. A lot of them are near the surface, some exposed by mines. The downside is that they are far from current civilization since the closer ones have been mined. Wood was important in the US for industrialization. Unlike Europe, the US had lots of forests. Those might be enough for start. Also, we know how to make electricity from solar, wind, and hydro. They need electricity and good design so may not work in beginning but for later stages.

wincy 3y ago
Russia has essentially an inexhaustible supply of trees in the taiga if people were determined enough. The scope of the number of trees is absurd, with estimates that 18 percent of the worlds biomass is in the taiga.
whaleofatw2022 3y ago
Enough to start bit how far would we get? As a cynical young adult I always giggled at the 'coke express' train cars that flew by on the railroad tracks but nowadays I know what that means what it's used for and how we get it. I.e. so many of our modern industrial processes still depend on coal, and the alternatives often require huge energy inputs themselves.