Are we running out of fossil fuels and should we start finding better alternatives? [for an argument paper]?

Question

This is for an argument paper and I need some outside views.
First state if you say yes or no to either part of the question.
Please give an in depth reason why you think this way.
Also be sure to include information to questions such as the following (they do not need to be these specific questions, just questions like them):

--What are some reasons why we might be running out that help support your claims?
--What are some reasons why we might NOT be running out that help support your claims?
--What are some alternatives to fossil fuels that you feel would be good replacements?
--Why might we not need to switch to alternatives?
--Do you feel like we need to switch to alternatives entirely now and quit using fossil fuels until we find more?

Answer 1

The future is bleak if we use fossil fuels - and bleak if we don't use fossil fuels...



The problem is that we are running out...



Most projections that show the reserves will last for hundreds of years - are wrong...



They don't take into account the exponential increase in demand for energy...



The set of videos below deal with that problem...

Answer 2

there is particularly some fossil gasoline left that we could extract, yet at greater beneficial and larger value the two in funds and environmentally (deep ocean drilling, tar sands, fracking etc). the situation precise now could be no longer that we are understanding yet that the CO2 from burning it extremely is affecting the international climate working selections precise now are battery electric, hydrogen, ethanol, and bio-diesel. there does not seem a stable selection for fossil gasoline for transport and massive autos - bio-diesel i assume yet switching nutrition-generating farmland to gasoline production isn't so smart; we choose for the nutrition, too. switching to selections interior the U. S. might cut lower back dependence on distant places materials, this is a skill nationwide risk-free practices subject

Answer 3

The short answer is 'no'.



There are absolutely huge quantities of fossil fuels on our planet. We certainly won't run out of oil for the foreseeable future and certainly not for hundreds of years at least. The problem is that people often confuse the estimated quantity of fossil fuels on the planet (massive!) with the amount left in the deposits we're currently mining, pumping, drilling, etc (dwindling!).



We, as a species, started by extracting the fossil fuels that were easy to get to. Obviously, as time goes on, these 'easily accessible' fossil fuels will dry up. That means if we want to continue to use fossil fuels we have to go looking for 'not so easily accessible deposits'. This is why you have oil companies doing deep sea drilling and countries like Russia placing little flags under the polar icecap in ridiculous attempts to 'claim' new regions.



So fossil fuels are far from 'running out' but that's not the issue. The real issue is that, as we try to remove fossil fuels from the 'not so easily accessible deposits', they become more expensive. These deposits tend to be in and around countries that are notorious hot spots of geopolitical problems - a regime change in Libya, for example, shifts oil prices globally and everyone ends up paying more. We've already seen situations where some countries, like Russia, simply switched off gas supplies to other nations.



The reasons why we need to shift away from fossil fuels have very little to do with the quantities left in the ground. The main reasons are due to the volatility of the market and constantly fluctuating prices, the lack of security in having other nations supplying energy (and therefore being dependent on what happens in those nations), the environmental consequences of having to access fossil fuels from 'not so easily accessible deposits', and the unrest that will undoubtedly occur when western nations spend large sums buying up fossil fuels leaving poorer nations without.



At the moment we have no viable alternative that can match fossil fuel energy production. Wind, solar, tidal, etc are all useful but are variable and output changes depending on the day. Nuclear is one option but we've long passed the deadline to be able to build enough new reactors for the task. Fusion is the only real long-term option but we consistently invest paltry sums of cash into the research relative to the potential - the ITER reactor in France is going to cost about 15 - 20 billion euro. To put this into perspective, the Manhatten project cost the modern equivalent of about 24 billion dollars and the Apollo missions about 170 billion in 2005 dollars.

Answer 4

I don't think there is any doubt in the scientific community that fossil fuels are a non-renewable resource. Oil and natural gas will probably be prohibitively expensive to use as a fuel within the next 100 years. Coal may last a little longer. There have been a few instances of old oil wells refilling, but most believe this is just from previously-unknown, deeper wells and these cases are rare. I don't think there is any legitimate science that has concluded we have a near-infinite supply of fossil fuels.



Obviously we need to switch at some point. The only other option is to go back to the 1700s in terms of energy usage. We don't need to quit cold-turkey now, but we do need to be working on alternatives now so that they exist when we need them.



At the moment, and likely into the future, the best alternative is solar energy. If we harnessed just 0.02% of the total solar energy that reached the earth, we could power everything on earth. And we can make solar panels out of the second most abundant element in the earth's crust, silicon.

Answer 5

fossil fuels are just that the remains of living things mostly plants that grew and died tens and hundreds of millions of years ago



the rate at which they are burned can be googled



there is a theory they actually came from outer space and the earth is filed with them. pretty much no evidence for that



there is an entire Moon around Jupiter that might be liquid or solid methane (the component of natural gas) but it is there and we are here



all energy on earth except gravity and some radioactivity form uranium mostly , come from the sun which is a huge continuously exploding hydrogen bomb



we know we can mimic that on earth in a Fusion ( not fission reactor). at the moment we have to put more electrical energy into the machine to make it work than we get out



google "peak oil", america was once the world exporter of oil. since the 1970 we have to import. we burn more than we find or extract.



in the near future the best source of energy is solar, there is plenty of that but it costs a lot to "catch sunshine"



if we stop wasting energy what we have will be available. California has greatly increased energy use but by increasing efficiency it has required very little more energy than 30 years ago.



there will always be some oil left someplace but it might cost $100,000 a bbl to get it.