Science Project

[Gaelbert]

Does anybody know where I can find out how long the world's supply of the following materials may last?

Wood
Coal
Petroleum
Natural Gas

I've tried google and wikipedia, both of those usually work for me, but unfortunately, not this time.

[someonenonotyou]

try the forest, umm or ebay:smallbiggrin:

[North]

Call your teacher a hippie and tell him its all variable based upon usage and a million other myriad factors that are impossible to gauge.:smallwink:

[reorith]

just write "three days" and sketch a creepy moon with wide eyes in the margin of every page.

bonus points if you make it a flipbook
double bonus points if you add a paragraph about how long the world's supply of delicious cake will last
triple points if you write it in white text

[Vella_Malachite]

I heard something from my Science teacher that the petroleum supply may only last another 70-100 years, but don't quote me on it.

[Micate]

double bonus points if you add a paragraph about how long the world's supply of delicious cake will last

But everyone knows the cake is a lie. (sorry, had to do it).

[Narmoth]

Try here:
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/documents.html

and the known oil and gas supply will last only to about 2050 with curent amount of use in people/day

[Felixaar]

Yet we never ran out of horses in the old times.

You know what this means, right?

Gentlemen... Ladies... we must BREED Coal.

[Saeveo]

Does anybody know where I can find out how long the world's supply of the following materials may last?

Wood
Coal
Petroleum
Natural Gas

I've tried google and wikipedia, both of those usually work for me, but unfortunately, not this time.

Biomass (wood and the like) is renewable, so until we screw that up, really. Or until the sun dies and plunges our planet into bitter cold. Whichever comes first.

It's quite difficult to put figures on Oil and Gas because we're not quite sure how much we have. OPEC isn't even honest when they estimate their reserves. Really, we won't run out for hundreds of years: if we apply simple economics, as supply falls, prices will rise and the amount actually bought will fall. So oil used will fall along what looks like an exponential distribution. But yeah, in about 70 - 100 years, it won't really be viable to use it as much as we do now. No petrol driven cars, no oil-based plastics.


Gentlemen... Ladies... we must BREED Coal.

We'd just end up with hideous coal-hybrids. Bit-anthra-peat and his un-natural brethren.

[Telonius]

It's quite difficult to put figures on Oil and Gas because we're not quite sure how much we have.

We're not even sure how much we'll use in the future. Most of the projections online are based on current use, but that doesn't take into account developing economies. China's share of energy consumption and total CO2 emissions, for example, are much greater now than they were in 1990 (link here (http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1748-3131.2006.00017.x?cookieSet=1)- Table 1 and Figure 4 are what you'll want to look at).