Question

Question 34
Coal reserves are said to be enough to last for another hundred years. Do you think we need to worry in such case? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Clearly, fossil fuel reserves are finite - it's only a matter of when they run out - not if. Globally - every year we currently consume the equivalent of over 11 billion tones of oil in fossil fuels. Crude oil reserves are vanishing at the rate of 4 billion tones a year if we carry on at this rate without any increase for our growing population or aspirations, our known oil deposits will be gone by 2052.
We’ll still have gas left, and coal too. 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 2060. But the rate at which the world consumes fossil fuels is not standing still, it is increasing as the world's population increases and as living standards rise in parts of the world that until recently had consumed very little energy. Fossil Fuels will, therefore, run out earlier.