Anyone else think that "we're running out of oil" is complete bullshit?
 

We're constantly told that we're soon going to run out of oil, anyone else think this is complete bull shite? We've probrably only been massively using oil for 100 years and the whole words supply is running out, please, do you know how vast our oceans are. I think the oil companies just say this so they can bump the prices up, seems a convenient scheme to me. I don't believe hardly anything I'm told by the media/government because usually its only said with political intentions - like global warming being caused by our co2 emmisions.

Global warming is cause by water vapor.

Anyone with half a brain knows this.

http://www.physorg.com/news11710.html

Thats what I'm saying, global warming is most likely caused on a natural cycle perhaps over thousands of years. But people just use it is a political weapon, saying they will reduce carbon emmisions and defeat global warming will get them votes and the vast majority of people will believe them too.

In grade school in the 70's we were constantly told that fossil fuels would run out before the year 2000.

Right.

2c

We were going to go into an an ice age, all the trees were going to be gone and we would be without oxygen, soil erosion, ozone layer we were all going to get skin cancer and die, blah fuckin blah. Its all bullshit.

i don't think it's bullshit, we will run out of oil eventually.. it probably won't be in my lifetime or any of yours.

i also don't know if humans are ultimately responsible for global warming, but i don't think that is the point. the point is there are things we could be doing to cut emissions and help the environment that would benefit us in the long run, regardless of what the cause is.

AUTHOR: BRUCE BARTLETT

Is OIL UNLIMITED?

Predictably, the recent rise in oil prices has the usual doom-and-gloom crowd, which has consistently been wrong for 30 years, saying once again that this proves we are running out of oil and that severe curbs on gasoline consumption must be imposed to preserve what little is left for future generations. They need not worry. There is growing evidence that oil is far more plentiful than we have been led to believe.
The prevailing theory of the origin of oil is the dead dinosaur hypothesis and dates back to the 18th century. Its originator was a Russian scientist named Mikhail Lomonosov, who put it this way in a 1757 paper: "Rock oil (petroleum) originates as tiny bodies of animals buried in the sediments which, under the influence of increased temperature and pressure acting during an unimaginably long period of time, transforms into rock oil."

However, in the 1950s, Russian and Ukrainian scientists developed a new theory about petroleum's origins called the abiotic or abiogenic theory. According to this view, oil is fundamentally inorganic and has no relationship to dead plant or animal life. Rather, oil originates deep in the Earth's crust from inorganic material that is part of the planet's origin.
In the words of geologist Vladimir Porfir'yev, "The overwhelming preponderance of geological evidence compels the conclusion that crude oil and natural gas have no intrinsic connection with biological matter originating near the surface of the Earth. They are primordial materials which have erupted from great depths."
For more than 50 years, Russian and Ukrainian scientists have successfully used the abiotic theory to find oil and natural gas. For example, the Dnieper-Donets Basin has yielded a significant amount of oil and natural gas even though it is an area that conventional biological theories reject as unpromising. A recent technical paper found that the results "confirm the scientific conclusions that the oil and natural gas found in ... the Dnieper-Donets Basin are of deep, and abiotic, origin."
As Russia has opened up since the fall of the Soviet Union and because it has become a large and growing factor in the international oil market, American scientists are becoming increasingly knowledgeable about and interested in the abiotic theory of petroleum. Recently, the National Academy of Sciences published a paper on the topic. The Gas Research Institute has financed exploration based on abiotic theories, with encouraging results. And the American Association of Petroleum Geologists has taken an interest in the subject as well.
The leading supporter of the abiotic theory in the United States is Thomas Gold of Cornell University. His 1999 book, "The Deep Hot Biosphere" (Springer-Verlag) is a thorough discussion of the issues. It is based in part on research financed by the U.S. Geological Survey. Among leading scientists whose work supports the abiotic theory are Jean Whelan of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Mahlon Kennicutt of Texas A&M University and J.F. Kenny of the Gas Resources Corporation.
Interestingly, economic research also implicitly supports abiotic theory. A leading researcher in this regard is Michael C. Lynch, president of Strategic Energy and Economic Research and formerly chief energy economist for DRI-WEFA.
In a new paper, Mr. Lynch debunks a common theory called the Hubbert Curve, which postulates that the yield of oil fields is inherently limited. The problem, as Mr. Lynch points out, is that actual experience in many instances contradicts the Hubbert theory. Its primary flaw is that it views geology as the sole factor in oil discovery, recovery and depletion. In fact, oil prices, government policy and technology play critical roles. But the evidence he presents of oil fields that yielded far more than the Hubbert Curve predicts is consistent with the abiotic theory, which says that oil fields can be refilled from sources well below those in which production now takes place.
Finally, it is important to remember that improving technology improves the oil situation regardless of the theory of its origins. A study last year by Cambridge Energy Research Associates found that five emerging technologies — remote sensing, visualization, intelligent drilling and completions, automation and data integration — will greatly improve the ability of energy companies to increase their drilling success rate, better manage reserves and operate more efficiently.
William Severns, the study's leader, explained, "With these capabilities, companies may be able to increase the amount of oil and natural gas recovered in a given field by 2 percent to 7 percent, reduce lifting costs by 10 percent to 25 percent, and increase production rates by 2 percent to 4 percent."
Of course, higher prices also make known deposits of oil that were previously too costly to exploit viable economically, as well as reducing demand. Consequently, it is impossible to ever literally run out of oil. The possibility should not be a factor in the energy debate.

Bruce Bartlett is senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis and a nationally syndicated columnist.

All I know is Canada is one of the largest oil producing nations in the world, we sell a huge chunk of it to the USA, and yet we pay more at the pump than Americans do.

Fuck! :(

Global warming caused by humans due to too much CO2 in air (hence thining the ozone layer) IS THE BIGGEST LYE EVER TOLD.

Go to youtube.com and search for: Global warming swindle

Watch it!

The sea expels more then 70% of worlds CO2. Humans contribute less then 0.5%. Yet the whole global warming B.S is that humans are contributing shitloads.

Facts > Opinions :2 cents: Nobody credible is saying we're out of oil. Fields will peak on their own schedules. The United States already peaked decades ago. Some fields will still be pumping decades from now. Globally, we've probably plateaued. We have been using more oil than we discover for a very long time. And what's left has increasingly poor EROEI (energy return on energy invested). The immediate worry isn't running out, it's slow/no/negative growth. Our economy is tied to energy growth and collapses without it.

Oh, and that abiotic oil theory above is about as scientific as creationism.

It's almost irrelevant whether human activity is partially affecting global warming or whether it is a completely natural cyclical phenomenon. The greater issue is how humankind will adapt to what will eventually be significant changes to the planet's conditions as has occurred at various points in the history of the planet. The temperature, the weather, even the percentage of the oxygen composition of the atmosphere have fluctuated many times in pre-history and there is n o reason to think it wont happen again. Throw in a few catastrophes like asteroid impacts, and in the very long term, say thousands or hundreds of thousands of years, human civilization will have unexpected and serious issues to contend to, and we may not be able to survive them even with our most advanced technology.

Damn edit timer, I wanted to add...Even if it were true, what good does it do us if the earth can't produce it as fast as we need it? You'll still die of thirst if your water supply only replenishes a few drops a day.

We are not out of oil and anyway, for you, it is possible to produce synthetic oil out of the 500 years of carbon stock available in the USA.
But it will be more expensive.
Also it is not because you are not out of oil that it is a good reason to waste the nature.

Al Gore pisses me off

why not get off oil, it could create whole new industries in the us that cant be sent offshore. We wouldnt be filling our tanks with something that pays for terrorism. To live cleaner someone please explain why its this evil plan, I like breathing clean air do you?

my own whacked out theory is that by sucking the oil out of the ground the techtonic plates will collapse or shift very rapidly causing a huge tsunami.. or other crazy event. just my theory based on nothing though but..

Oil....Massage....Making me Horny

FuckinHorny.com

With all the pollution in the oceans killing plankton, which is what removes the CO2 in the atmosphere, the oceans are decreasing their ability to remove all that CO2.

Everyone should get one of these electric cars here. Even if global warming isn't happening, it would be nice not to make the Saudi Arabians richer tham they already are.

I think Canada is number 8 or so based on production behind Saudi Arabia, Russian, USA, Iran, Mexico, China and Norway.

Canada does have one of the largest reserves (including tar sands) second only to Saudi Arabia.

Blame Canada for it's own gas price woes, it's all about the tax.

If you look at the bigger picture of all this, it doesn't really matter if we are running out of oil or not. It's what our governments and the big oil conglomerates are forcing us to settle with. Even if we do begin to run out of oil, we are screwed because these people have bottlenecked the present available technology that would make oil supply or shortages obsolete. You think they are gonna allow themselves to lose money to alternative technology on a mass scale? NO... They dont care about anything else but how much money they can squeeze out of the world. Whats gonna happen is one day we are going to find ourselves in a real shortage and be screwed because of their greed.

Maybe the oil market is just like the DIAMOND market... less to do with real PHYSICAL demand and supply but with PERCEIVED supply and demand?

You don't eat diamonds. You do eat oil.

Dammit! my secret authoritative informational resource has been exposed!
Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!............

There is a finite supply of oil on earth. And yes, we will run out of it eventually unless our species dies off in the next few hundred years.

Thankfully there are alternatives that will become even more attractive with time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_...arming_Swindle
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists...184160,00.html

My home town (pop 307) is home to the largest bio plant in the world. So f*ck the "Cartel", affordable fuel is here.

REF: http://www.city-data.com/city/Claypool-Indiana.html
REF: http://www.eere.energy.gov/news/news...m/news_id=9846
REF: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006..._largest_.html

That's so true $5 submissions, that mindset has driven the world economy for years. As true as 'supply and demand' is the fact exists that 'perceived supply and perceived demand' are more powerful. If I tell you every day you don't look well, eventually you won't feel well.

Right on man:thumbsup

The era of cheap oil is over.

It was over once Bush took office. Now he and Big Dick work hard to keep the price way up there.

bullshit = true.com

Oh there's extra oil out there. The problem is that that oil would be so expensive to get that $5 a gallon gas will seem cheap. It's sad that we still basically run our cars on the same technology as we did 100 years ago. If oil companies were smart they'd quit fighting the future and get into these alternative fuels biz and make some money that way before someon else does it.

Believe me, I know who to blame. :D


It just irks me that other oil-producing nations like Venezuela for instance, gas in that country is something like 15 cents per litre. I saw a list about a year ago when the price of gas was again sky high here and in the US, and one such country's price at the pump was a whopping .12 cents per litre. I just don't get that.... why it can be so low in other oil-producing nations yet just has to be so damn high in Canada.

I'd be happy if we could at least say that we pay less than Americans, but sadly I can't recall a time when we as Canadians could ever say that.

At some point people are going to have to wake up and realize that in the grand scheme of things we are insignificant. We are a speck on the back of mite on the back of a flea on the back of a bird on the back of an elephant. We can not even control ourselves, let alone the planet. The fires in the Southeast this past month have done more pollution than all of the automobiles have for the last 5 years combined. It is absurd to think our being here has altered earth in any meaningful way. Pick up cans and drive hybrid cars, don't eat meat and only fart on Sundays if it makes you FEEL important. But don't preach or legislate my behaviour because it doesn't matter what we do, the earth is the boss and it tells us what to do. Ask the people in New Orleans and Mississippi.