Posted on 05/29/2002 8:18:56 AM PDT by jimkress
Edited on 05/25/2004 3:03:02 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Yes, but there are lots of theories that have holes, and we buy into them anyway. For example here's something I've wondered about:
If oil is created by a process that starts with a biomass and takes millions of years to become oil, why isn't it still happening? If it is indeed a process shouldn't there be also be deposits that are only 20%, 50%, or 80% finished in the process? These "in process" deposits would also presumably be found at shallower (younger) depths. They should be everywhere. Sure, there are subtle differences between the "flavors" of different oil fields but all the oil we have ever found is for the most part all the same, and the chemistry therein is not hugely different between the shallow stuff and the deep stuff.
That seems to me to be an interesting argument that oil is more likely mineral than vegetable. Don't get thrown by "organic" compounds. Just because living things produce a compound doesn't mean that's the only way the compound can happen.
Not really.
The enviro-loonies have been doing the bait and switch ever since they started Earth Day. Back then, it was the population bomb. After that, it was pollution. After that, it was energy sources. Species extinction. Rainforest cutting. Now, its global warming.
Its the standard Chicken-Little mantra of 'the sky is falling', only the sky is always changing. Of course, the lawyers and executives that make up Environment, Inc. are the ones getting rich.
Please keep me posted you that I can get in on the IPO.
More seriouser, in addition to the oil aspect this article is a wonderful description of the dynamics of a free market.
The pace of nuclear fusion research should be stepped up. While costly now, it will pay large dividends in the future.
To add to the quandry consider that much oil and gas is found at 15,000 feet and deeper while some dinasaur bones are found on the surface. Was the 15,000+ level once the surface? Why are most ancient archological sites called digs? Of course, because they are underground. Why? Dust? Floods? These sites are only thousands of years old, not millions. Were the plates of the earths crust still in turmoil during the time that the 15,000' level was the surface and have they since settled except for the occassional earthquake and vocanic eruption? Lots of questions but I am sure someone has answered them with a theory at some time.
Do they know for a fact that natural gas and oil was made by decaying dinosaurs? I heard of someone digging up a pertified tree which was thought to be 2 million years old. It was found only at a depth of 300 feet. How did the dead dinos get to the depth that they are drilling for oil at? Is that even geologically reasonable?
All the past calculations of when the oil would "run out" that I've ever heard of are based on the idea that hydrocarbons are leftover from decaying plant and animal matter, literally the buried forests and remains of animals from the Cambrian through the Cretaceous eras. In other words, if hydrocarbons do not originate from animal and plant life but are part of the structure of the planet, the amount available is way beyond what humans could possibly consume and is for all intents and purposes inexhaustible.
Oddly enough, astronomical observations in the last ten years have confirmed that hydrocarbons are common on other planets, none of which as far as we know have ever held life, so there seems to be ample scientific evidence to support the idea that the same is true on Earth.
Real disappointing news to the luddites and tree hugging Chicken Little's of this world.
Yes, I've heard it somewhere in that ballpark figure, and about that amount from Iraq, if I remember correctly. I'd love to see those rulers in both countries tell their starving masses to "eat the oil" as Condi Rice put it!
I've wondered the same thing myself for years! Before I was slightly more savvy though, I couldn't figure out why we were running out of oil. Now I know it's probably been a scare tactic of certain factions.
Just because the local Koffee Kup closed after Starbucks moved in to town does not mean that we have a finite amount of coffee.
One has nothing to do with the other.
a.cricket
Follow the ('nothing?')...MONEY!!......
(use "ENRON" as a model!)
m
The is so much more to nature than we think.
For instance, did you know that paper clips
are the larval form of coat hangers?
'I think there are fault lines that prevent that. However taking their oil is effectively paying a tax to them. The pipeline lays at the State Department and the DNC.'
BTTT
(I also caught your interesting comments about this interesting theory, Duke.).
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