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What happens when the fossil fuels run out?

They say there is not long to go for oil and gas. There is for coal, but of course, if that takes over from the other two, it's time estimate will reduce drastically. Also, the estimates I've read are based on current per capita usage and population, and the population will certainly increase, and if usage trends continue, then per capita usage will increase too.
So picture a few hundred years down the line, we have a warmer world, and no fossil fuels.
We have the middle east and an ideology that doesn't like the west-how powerful will that become amidst the chaos? What kind of lives would we live? How much energy could alternative sources, hydro, wind etc give us, and how would it change our usage of technology? Will technological advance take a back seat, will we be forced to use no more advanced devices than now, or will what we have now be unsustainable with alternative energy?

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hmmm well there won't be any elephants left to ride around on

:beard:
Reply 2
Original post by Chillaxer
We have the middle east and an ideology that doesn't like the west-how powerful will that become amidst the chaos?


No fossil fuels = no money for the middle east. They won't be remotely powerful.
Reply 3
Nuclear.
Reply 4
Original post by Drewski
No fossil fuels = no money for the middle east. They won't be remotely powerful.


Don't you think they are getting probably robbed for it now? Seeing how they are so unstable, they are not exactly profiting. But anyway, I didn't mean oil wise, I meant that their ideology and demographics are spreading, and appealing to many disenfranchised youth in a chaotic and unstable world, it provides moral certainties.
Reply 5
Original post by Ruthless Dutchman
Nuclear.


But how much will it give us, and how will it change technologies usage and progress, that's what I want to know.
Reply 6
Humanity always finds a way :colonhash:
All of Scotland will go "I'm glad that Independence referendum worked out the way that it did."
Reply 8
Original post by Chillaxer
They say there is not long to go for oil and gas. There is for coal, but of course, if that takes over from the other two, it's time estimate will reduce drastically. Also, the estimates I've read are based on current per capita usage and population, and the population will certainly increase, and if usage trends continue, then per capita usage will increase too.
So picture a few hundred years down the line, we have a warmer world, and no fossil fuels.
We have the middle east and an ideology that doesn't like the west-how powerful will that become amidst the chaos? What kind of lives would we live? How much energy could alternative sources, hydro, wind etc give us, and how would it change our usage of technology? Will technological advance take a back seat, will we be forced to use no more advanced devices than now, or will what we have now be unsustainable with alternative energy?


It's not really true. If you look historically, people have been saying that oil will run out since the 1920's, the reality is that innovation and exploration has continued to identify new oil fields such that oil reserves in 2008 were the highest they'd ever been. We have massive fields in Iran and Venezuela which are essentially untapped. Further and in relation to gas, innovation has allowed new techniques like fracking which mean we can access new reserves of shale oil and gas (the UK alone has enough shale gas under it to last a century) and technological innovation in the west is so significant that some fields in the US can produce Shale Oil at less than $30 per barrel. Further though, we have seen profound improvements in electric cars and solar technology so it's possible that over time demand may not be as high as predicted.

Right now we only really need worry about the next 50-100 years. By the end of the century the population will falling and by that time even Africa should be relatively wealthy, by the 2050's if all goes to plan we will have nuclear fusion and space mining. These will solve any energy crisis provided things go as scheduled.

Original post by Drewski
No fossil fuels = no money for the middle east. They won't be remotely powerful.


Several of them have large populations so are potentially large consumer markets. With that being said the sad fact is that left to their own devices these places would be unable to govern themselves due being willing to put religion above their prosperity so without oil i do worry for the likes of Saudi Arabia.
Reply 9
Original post by Rakas21
I
Right now we only really need worry about the next 50-100 years. By the end of the century the population will falling and by that time even Africa should be relatively wealthy, by the 2050's if all goes to plan we will have nuclear fusion and space mining. These will solve any energy crisis provided things go as scheduled.


Space mining? Where? And you're very optimistic regarding Africa and population decline I think.
Original post by Gax
Humanity always finds a way :colonhash:


The reason why we have an oil crisis because people like you dont seem to care
Reply 11
Original post by Gax
Humanity always finds a way :colonhash:


This.

Main problem right now is cheap oil means it is simple not economical to use other sources of power. We have plenty of options, nuclear fusion, thorium reactors ect. As well as electric cars or hydrogen. Not to mention solar and wind which will come into their own in the next few decades. Once oil beings to actually run out you will see the pace of switching to these speed up as well as the systems themselves become more efficient. Till eventually we don't use oil much at all or perhaps only in poorer nations.
Reply 12
Original post by chukster97
The reason why we have an oil crisis because people like you dont seem to care

So people like you care then? What exactly have you done to improve the situation, since you care so much?
They plan a hoax so they can go to war with a country with oil


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Paradigm shift in power will have occurred long before then.. also likely have ridiculously efficient solar and almost definitely fusion power by then.

They have found enough oil and gas below the sea for at least the next 50-100 years; the issue is being able to go deep enough to get it, but new tech is allowing them to go deeper all the time so it's not a huge concern...
Original post by Chillaxer
Space mining? Where? And you're very optimistic regarding Africa and population decline I think.


With regards to Africa even modest growth over decades will eventually make them relatively wealthy compared to today.

Population decline is something most have high confidence in. Global birth rates have been dropping for decades, indeed China alone could shed 400 million people by 2100.

A number of companies are looking at asteroid mining. A long way to go but most seem to think they can do it before 2050.

Multiple companies..

[video="youtube;Eeyx4sTtsAM"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eeyx4sTtsAM&list=UUFlodOq24nSuPbgU6amyxnw[/video]

http://deepspaceindustries.com/
http://www.planetaryresources.com/
Original post by chukster97
The reason why we have an oil crisis because people like you dont seem to care


It's a crisis that oil is $80 per barrel?
If we actually do run out of fossil fuels, the resulting effects on the climate will probably mean that running out will be the least of our problems. I very much hope that we will have shifted our dependency away from fossil fuels by that time.
Reply 18
Original post by Chlorophile
If we actually do run out of fossil fuels, the resulting effects on the climate will probably mean that running out will be the least of our problems. I very much hope that we will have shifted our dependency away from fossil fuels by that time.


I doubt we will completely run out. It'll get to the point where it is just too expensive to get them out the ground, so funding will move to other things. It's why fracking became a thing, previously that oil had been too expensive so no one bothered. Even now if oil keeps slipping to below 70$ a barrel some of those wells will have to halt production.
Call me a sadist but I want to see what will happen if we run out.

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