How much longer will the world supply of oil last?

';How much longer will the world supply of oil last?'; some responses were:





';long enough'; no.





';I don't care, as long as it lasts to the end of my lifetime'; not planning to have kids? or don't care about them?





';The US has about 500 (conservative) to 1000 (projected) years worth of oil at current consumption';


http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2005鈥?/a>





you might note that we're not developing it, even though the price of oil is expected to rise significantly in the near future. the reasons are that (a) it's very expensive, and current technology just cannot produce that much and (b) most of it we have no idea how to get. It鈥檚 just not sufficiently concentrated that we can gather it up.





Btw, I hate the term ';Oil producers';. Nobody鈥檚 ';producing'; oil. People are extracting it, and burning it. Not producing it.





';Realistically, this is a non issue. The world is right on the cusp of nuclear fusion power. Clean, safe, limitless energy with no possible use in warfare. It's perhaps 10 years away now.





ya know, fusion has been only a few years away for 20-30 years now. One smart fellow said, ';Hydrogen fusion is the energy source of the future -- and always will be.';





';it doesn't matter one damn bit how much oil is left. When it *really* starts to run out (which is quite unlikely in any of our lifetimes) the price will go up to such a point that we will find an alternative.'; excuse me, but it's clearly going to be a problem in our lifetime. we may not ';run out'; physically, but it certainly will get sufficiently expensive that, for all intents and purposes, for non-rich people it will have run out.





btw, in anwar, it's projected that there is 6-9 month's of oil supply for the US. Billions of dollars, but in reality, not a lot of oil.





it's interesting how many folks think, ';hey it'll be okay. we can do anything we really want to. we're real smart.';





being old, i'll probably see $100 a barrel, but not see oil run out.


your children, however, will see the world essentially run out.





as for making oil from vegetable matter, not in any significant quantity. (1) today we use fertilizer, made from oil. (2) most of the good farm land is already being used to grow food. and i think that food will be more important to me than driving. land that's not used for food production doesn't produce a lot of growth. if it did, we'd be growing food there.





back to the question: ';How much longer will the world supply of oil last?';





within 10 years, $3.00 a gallon gas will be really cheap.


within 20 years, you won't be able, in most cases, to buy an SUV. they'll be outlawed.


within 40 years, if fusion doesn't work, our society will face it's worst problem ever:


- do we burn coal, and make our world too hot to live in, or


- do we cripple our industrial society?How much longer will the world supply of oil last?
Nope!


My kids are grown and can deal with their own problems.


I won't be making any more kids.


I care enough to stay out of the future generations' way as they tend to their own problems.


If the oil lasts until the end of my lifetime, my oil problems will be solved. Report Abuse
How much longer will the world supply of oil last?
long enough.
I think about 70 years
not long....some experts say we have used more than half now...and our consumption rates have gone up
We can extract oil from plants such as pine trees and evergreen bushes. we will never completely run out you retard!
No one is sure how long the Earth's oil supply will last. Based on current estimates, about 20 years. I remember back in the early 80's when they were saying that we would be out by 2000.
I don't care, as long as it lasts to the end of my lifetime.
Not that long...according to Geologists, we have already reached our oil ';peak'; about 10-15 years ago. Oil is running short, before we know it there won't be any left.
The US has about 500 (conservative) to 1000 (projected) years worth of oil at current consumption, within the actual borders of the United States. The rest of the world has about the same amount for thier own use.





Realistically, this is a non issue. The world is right on the cusp of nuclear fusion power. Clean, safe, limitless energy with no possible use in warfare. It's perhaps 10 years away now. After it becomes a reality no one will use oil or coal (let alone nuclear fission) anymore.





We have pleeeeenty of oil for generation after generation, let alone the extremely short time oil has left as a source of energy in the world economy.





Heck, we have 500 years of oil just as shale oil, in the US:





http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2005鈥?/a>
Ah, yes...now we have the lovely term ';Peak Oil'; for all the fearmongers to fret over. Bottom line, it doesn't matter one damn bit how much oil is left. When it *really* starts to run out (which is quite unlikely in any of our lifetimes) the price will go up to such a point that we will find an alternative. Humans are very good at adapting and there are many alternatives...it's just that, for now, those alternatives are more expensive. When the time comes, the free market will determine which alternative, or variety of alternatives we proceed with. But, hey, humans are also pretty good at making themselves feel guilty just for existing. No matter what alternative we choose in the future, the fearmongers will just as eagerly tell you how horrible it is to the environment, that it too is about to run out, and that it's all the fault of greedy capitalists.
We dont really know. We may say that its now running short, but there are some unexplored part of the earth where we can find more oil. For example, Alaska.. That land looks like it has no use, but when they started to explore it, they found out that it has oil... Same will happen as long as we keep on exploring..