Fuel, how many years do you think till the wells run dry?

[Mr Jive]

I heard that thorium is being used for energy and I heard that 3,000 metric tonnes of that can fuel the world I believe... Hopefully we will have helium-3 as an energy source and can power our countries for years to come.

Ohhh if we made fusion reactors then we would have double advantages! Helium is a by-product of it - so yeah. I'm sure we would do fine as a species when it runs out.

[PoXiE [Zefux]]

Well, if they won't discover any new power sources in 20-30 years, we are screwed.

[Zero]

Probably another 50 years or so. It's sad, but we'll run out soon enough. Still, scientists will probably have some good alternatives by then.

[Journeyman H. [UK]]

Another necropost? Fantastic.

To be clear. We will run out of oil within 30-50 years. It does not matter how "Efficient" you make the oil, because you get population growth as well, keep in mind, the population always rises, so it wouldn't matter about efficient oil usage, because there'd be more, and more people using oil.

There have been claims that the planet Titan might have oil reserves, and more than Earth has. However, in order to get there, we have to use enormous amounts of oil, to fly there, to extract it, then to return it.

We do have 3 planets we can potentially live (underground), however the gravity is either too light, or it has too much radiation, or the operation itself is far too dangerous to consider using it let alone the resources and productivity strength to create a system big enough to look after every single human being.

Just to remind you, we do have far, far, far greater alternatives in solving this problem, renewable energy, you can argue and hiss at me as much as you like, but it wouldn't do anything. We have the feasibility and the knowledge to accomplish a great challenge.


Now whomever suggested that we won't run out of oil, sure. But what method?
Fracking.

Fracking is by far, the most dangerous operation to both humans and the environment.

We use billions, upon billions gallons of water just to complete a fracking operation.
According to people who are against fracking, upto 600 chemicals are used.
When the chemicals are combined with water, you get a fracking fluid, which is used to blast the shale rocks in order to release gas and oil.

The consequences?
Contaminated water. - Which becomes flammable and potentially lethal for humans to drink, including tap water.
30-50% of the fluid used for fracking is not returned. Therefore it's leaked, also noting that it's not bio-degradable would mean damage to the environment.


Should we sacrifice so much for so little? Just to retain profit and to maintain the oil system but the result being contaminated water? You decide.
(Please take note that if the fluid gets to the aquifers, you're fucked, unless you want to pay taxpayers money to clean up the mess that oil companies have done, be my guest, but the cost of doing so will be enormous.)