Fracking [11] involves the extraction of shale gas by drilling into the the Earth and pumping boreholes with a high pressure water mixture. This is water and electricity intensive. It uses huge amounts of energy to get even more energy and also uses chemicals and metals which poison the groundwater and the environment. It is a growing technology which needs our critical estimation. Fracking has been safely used in the United States since More than 1. How much natural gas does the United States have, and how long will it last?
What is the volume of world natural gas reserves? As of January 1, , there were an estimated 7, trillion cubic feet Tcf of total world proved reserves of gross natural gas [13] From IEA. Last updated: March 8 , However, for the US, the U. Energy Information Administration estimates in the Annual Energy Outlook that as of January 1 there were about 2, trillion cubic feet Tcf of technically recoverable resources TRR of dry natural gas in the United States.
Taking into consideration the current rate of natural gas production and current known natural gas reserves, we have about We will still have gas and coal left by the time oil runs out in But if we increase gas production to fill the energy gap left by oil, then those reserves will only give us an additional eight years, taking us to We should realize that burning gas impacts on global warming because of CO 2 emission.
Global coal demand is up 0. Coal is the oldest fuel we have and it has taken few hundred millions of years to form from vegetation. The US, China and India are still actively mining coal. How long will coal last? It will depend on new technology, may be years in order to replace oil and gas. According to the IEA, in total global coal consumption in energy terms increased by 1 percent, or Again, China and India lead the increase in consumption.
While the world is gobbling up fossil fuel, we are also developing alternative fuels. The world is actively developing renewable sources of energy — solar, wind and hydro — though the latter is limited because of global warming and overall lack of water. Global renewable power production increased by 6. The growth rate in is around 75 Million tonnes oil equivalent Mtoe.
As fossil fuels begin to disappear, nuclear power is becoming more and more prominent because it is the only alternative base system capable of providing electricity continuously 24 hours a day.
According to National Geographic , those elements helped create what we know today as fossil fuels. Yes, we will absolutely run out of oil.
For all we know there are millions of gallons of liquified dinosaurs floating gruesomely beneath the surface of some undiscovered undersea oil well.
The problem is that the demand for oil is at a point that even some undiscovered windfalls won't really make much of a difference. This, of course, could simply be an indication of the high demand that oil has always had in our global economy. Nevertheless, there is no denying that our current transportation and energy systems are woefully dependent on fossil fuels. The original projection for peak oil was made in the s and predicted it would fall somewhere in the s, but that analysis did not consider how technology has improved in terms of oil extraction and fuel mitigation.
In , the American Petroleum Institute estimated that we'd run out of oil between and ; however, in , the Cambridge Energy Research Associates estimated that we actually had three times the amount of oil on Earth than was believed in , according to ZME science. Renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power, provide a viable alternative to fossil fuels.
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When will we run out of coal and natural gas? Published on 2nd December by:. Jackson Howarth In-house Writer. Back to Blog More on Green.
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