According to a major geologist, if you think the world is on the verge of running out of oil or other mineral resources, you’ve been taken in by one of the biggrest myths about geology.
Eric Cheney says, “The most common question I get is, ‘When are we going to run out of oil?’ The correct response is, ‘Never.’ It might be a heck of a lot more expensive than it is now, but there will always be some oil available at a price, perhaps $10 to $100 a gallon.”
Changing economics, technological advances and efforts such as recycling and substitution make the world’s mineral resources virtually infinite, says Cheney, who teaches at the University of Washington. For instance, oil deposits the were unreachable 40 years ago can be tapped today using improved technology, and oil that was once too costly to extract from tar sands, organic matter or coal is now worth manufacturing.
So we’re not going to run out of oil?we’re just going to run out of CHEAP oil (and maybe we already have). Today’s prices seem inordinately high, Cheney says, because crude oil was at the extremely low price of $10 a barrel eight years ago and now costs around $58 a barrel and has been as high as $78.
Despite all this, we DO need to find gas substitutes that don’t give off greenhouse gas emissions, or we MAY run out of time.
Art credit: freeimages.co.uk
If you’re not careful, unknowncountry.com could run out of time as well, and just not be here the next time you fire up your computer. We depend on YOU to keep this website going, so subscribe today!
NOTE: This news story, previously published on our old site, will have any links removed.
Subscribers, to watch the subscriber version of the video, first log in then click on Dreamland Subscriber-Only Video Podcast link.