[Elihu Burritt]

My geology professor at OU maintains that the evidence suggests that oil and natural gas may very well be formed continuously, and that we're not any more likely to run out of petroleum than we are to run out of water or basalt. Could be, could be.

Yes and no. The oil that seems to fill up old fields a bit may actually just be seepage from adjacent areas. One thing for sure, there are lots of old wells that haven't filled up in any really significant way. If it does just come from the earth, the relevant question is how quickly, and most evidence points to it not being all that snappy.

We will never run out of gold, but we will never have as much as we want either. Unless of course we learn to make it at a reasonable price.

And even if we do run out of oil and gas, we can make oil as long as there is oil shale, and that is as common as basalt. Potable water already is another problem though.

[ChemistCat]

Yep. Though there is no water SHORTAGE--the problem of distribution and purity is definitely going to be with us for as long as there are nations too poor to do anything about the infrastructure needed to distribute drinking water. (Landlocked deserts are just pretty much stuck.)