What will happen to us all when we have no oil or petrol or gas?

Question

What will happen to us all when we have no oil or petrol or gas?

Answer 1

We will probably actually turn to the coal-oil and the coal-gas extractions to get oil from coal, a resource that is still highly feasible given that America's own coal supply is immense, so why not convert it to oil eventually.  The technology does exist.

Also, there is a potentially slowing rate of using up gas, as we have found other substances useful for fuel, including ethanol from sources such as sugarcane, which is so much more efficient in getting it than corn, and our own Gulf Coast states are suitable for growing the crop.  Florida already has some sugarcane grown.  We also are gradually developing higher mpg vehicles, and new oil reserves are still being found, yet remaining untapped including in neighboring Canada.

Don't neccessarily fear this doomsday scenario, there are other environmental crises that will hurt us much sooner than this one will.

Answer 2

rioting..........panic and chaos

Answer 3

We will adapt to other fuels.There will always be a new way.We will change our lifestyles.Its already happening,if you are smart you will find ways to simplify and keep a standard of living that you can afford.If you are not you will be among the millions who complain about everything while doing nothing to help.I really don't think we need to overly worry about it,our world is full of bright people just waiting to get their chance to change the world,maybe even for the better.The future is bright not dim.

Answer 4

i guess we will have to go and pinch the horses in the fields then lol. Who knows. They managed in the olden days so i guess we would have to manage.

Answer 5

We won't be able to get to work so then we can just stay home and just have fun.  Smoke pot, drugs, orgies and die happy.

Answer 6

The exponential growth of the worlds population is a Direct result of the age of oil.

When the oil is too expensive or scarce the same exponential decline in the worlds population  will result.

Our food production depends on fossil fuel for fertilizer, pesticides, and transporting our 3,000 mile caesar salads.

We cannot feed 6.5 billion without cheap, abundant oil.

Answer 7

Shank's pony.

Answer 8

We will have to go back to 'Shank's Pony' and walk. All that exercise and no emissions will be great and we will all get stronger.

Answer 9

we will just be forced to come up with alternate energy ideas - no question about it  - modern people can not live with out energy - the cave men did it - but today - impossible!

Answer 10

I was wondering that also. I know one thing, we'll all get fitter.

Answer 11

some people will stay home and get fat, some will walk everywhere, and everyone will have more s*x to pass the time they'd spend driving and jetting off on holidays

Answer 12

I don't drive so I cycle or walk. When you think about it, if we ALL did this now, the oil companies would have 2nd thoughts about bringing the prices down

Answer 13

If there's no sustainable renewable or alternative fuel source widely available first there will most likely be mass panic and chaos. Then people would hopefully plummet the last of there quickly dwindling wealth into new viable energy sources that can be widely distributed and established in a period of a few short years. All the while the last remaining, and somewhat stable governments try to keep the third-world and poverty stricken areas from erupting into further self destruction and civil, regional, and international war.

So to prevent this transition now and GO GREEN!!!!

To find out how go to  climatecrisis.org , we.org , think.mtv.com , and an array of other informative websites.

Also JOHNNIE B, plants use photosynthesis to create sugars like ATP, not oil. The fossil fuels we are currently consuming where formed over millions of years which puts a time limit on the usage of such energy sources. In words you maybe able to understand they are NON-renewable because of the time it takes to create them, which means in the next century or earlier the amount of crude oil, coal, and natural gas that is usable by us will be gone.

Answer 14

we will stay put, no work because we can't get there, unless its within walking distance. Then stocks in the shops will start dwindling as the trucks won't be running, so no foodstuffs getting to the supermarket. Then the heating system in homes and offices will be shut down, unless we can find a way of generating energy some other way. The list is endless.

You need to look at this seriously as we are looking at one day running out of these resources.

Answer 15

Not what will happen when there is no more energy source, because there always will be one. The question is what will happen when greed makes energy cost so expensive that the average person can't go to work or heat their house or pay for food because of trucking costs. What will happen is this. The rich people out there that can't use common sense to live or pour p**s out of a boot with out hiring it out will see them self Fu--ed. because us worker will not be there to wipe their asses.

Answer 16

The answer to this question is two-fold. First,

Desel fuel can be replaced with simple used cooking oil.

E85 is 85% Alcohol.

There is also the "Hydrogen Powered" Cars coming up, electric cars, and other forms of transportation.

As a paticular material spikes in cost, so too does research into alternate ways of doing the same thing. The big oil companies know this, that is why they are concerned with rising oil costs as well. They aren't just blowing smoke when they say they want the prices lower. They want "the magical amount", where it isn't worth it for others to find alternitives to their industry, but that they get the most money they can out of it. Too late for them, the Genie is out of the bottle and the research is almost to fruition.

The second answer is,

The "Non-Renewable" Fossile Fules really ARE renewable. It just takes millions of years through natural process. Another thing that takes millions of years through natural processes are diamonds. As the technology to artificially create things increases, the cost to create them decreases. Eventually it will become cost feasable to create black crude from products such as trees and things.

So what will happen to us is we'll use something else. As long as our population base to sustain the technologies remains, the loss of the materials to create the technology is irrelevant.

Of course if we run out before the research matures, we could face massive starvation, which might feasably drop our population below the level to sustain the technologies that require the materials that we don't have. But rest assured, there are other ways of doing things then using oil, and earth will never totally be completly out of oil, because there is someplace new oil is about to mature somewhere in our wonderful cellar called earth. it just might not be enough to make a difference.

(Added in Response to Brandon W)

There are people out there that will give you Doomsday scenarios, that the country will degenerate into chaos and that Third World Countries will start to slaughter each other indiscriminately. What those people don't seem to realize is that the United States still has an extensive railroad network, and even if all fossil fuels everywhere vanished overnight, Diesel engines could still run on extracts from seeds or gutted fish. This can be used to power our rail network, which was more then ample for keeping the country together before cars were invented. While I won't say that Third World Countries won't slaughter each other indiscriminately, I WILL say that without the United States' Influence, the regions will stabilize. Maybe with thousands of people "ethnically cleansed", but the regions will be stable.(refer to my Wikileaks Source). Instability isn't the natural state of human cultures. For a culture to be unstable, outside influences had to have prevented the internal process to bring on stability.

Also, not every study agrees that Fossil Fuels are a result of decaying organic matter. There are some Geological theory out there about the development of some kinds of fossil fuels using nothing but raw building blocks, heat, and pressure.

Answer 17

Come on U should know the answer to that. Plants and photosynthesis have made the fossil fuel we presently have. The plants produce all the oil here in earth. The plants capture the energy from the sun and make into a oil. The earth has continued to do this so we will never run out of oil..It is a Lie propagated by the Left.

Answer 18

Oil, petrol, gas are not magic substances necessary for humans to exist. They are not even essential for high tech humans to live a high tech lifestyle.

They are simply part of the stored wealth of this plant and represent a cheap and abundant source of chemical energy. However while they have been cheap to extract and use, we have failed to see the big picture. It is only now that we are beginning to realise that excessive use of these fuels is causing unwanted side effects, that make the real costs of using these fuels very high. Ie Global warming.

It is unlikely that we will actually run out of these chemical fuels as it is looking pretty clearly now that continued use of them without carbon sequestration makes them exceedingly dangerous. And with the sequestration very expensive. So we will start using alternative energy sources that are hopefully not going to have as many nasty side effects and are the next most affordable.

We do require relatively cheap abundant energy supplies to sustain a reasonable quality of life. But it does not have to be from oil, coal, petrol, or gas. Any reasonably priced abundant energy source will do. With abundant energy you can do anything. Without it you are very limited. Fortunately there is a super abundance of clean low impact energy sources all around us. Sunshine, hot rocks under the ground, tides, rivers, waves, wind, ocean currents, ocean temperature differentials, bio fuels. The list is long. The best part is that by their nature they are a lot less controlable by a few nations and a few companies. Perhaps this is why there is so much resistance to developing them. In a renewable energy driven world the power will be diversified and decentralized. That is reason enough to push towards renewable energy use.This frightens the super rich and power hungry.

The figures are widely available, the total amount of renewable energy available on the planet is thousands of times current usage.

At the moment however we do not jet have the technology to harvest all of it or even a lot of it economically. But then we only need a small portion of it right now. And we do have technology to harvest a lot more renewable energy than we do at quite reasonable costs. For example a hydro power station generates electricity cheaper than any fuel powered one. Trouble is all the best dam sites are already used, but there is still plenty of potential left in this very simple technology. Windfarms can provide a lot more energy than we give them credit for and their environmental impact is modest when compared to a fossil fuel plant.

We are only beginning to extract energy from waves and hot rocks, both potentially huge sources and hot rock technology provides constant reliable baseload power. Ocean thermal differentials were shown to be effective energy sources with a 1930s powerstation. Materials engineering has improved a lot since then, so we know it can work and work well, but perhaps not so cheap, but again baseload power.

So to answer your question, "Even if we do run out of fossil fuels or are forced to not use them anymore, nothing special will happen." Life will go on as normal, you just might find yourself living in a cleaner more sustainable community.

Answer 19

We change our lifestyles to adapt.

We will return to burning coal, peat and wood.

We will return to riding bicycles and horses

Answer 20

watch mad max , to find out

Answer 21

Honda have designed a car that runs on hydrogen with 0 emissions, the only thing it emits is water.  Wind farms, solar power and tidal energy is the way forward and so will find our electric and heating this way.

Answer 22

1) We still have coal

2) Use methane from rotting animal and biological waste

3) Use hydrogen

4) Solar

5) Wind

6) Tidal

7) Nuclear

oh and my favourite

8) Move to a new planet :)

Answer 23

WERE DOOMED I TELL YOU , DOOMED!

Answer 24

We have about hundreds of years of reserves of fossil fuels in the form of petroleum, coal, tar sands, oil shale and natural gas. We're not going to run out any times soon. The question is should we continue the way we have for 100 years or so or find new ways to power our civilization. The oil crisis we're in is probably going to be mostly positive in the long run since it's making alternative energy sources attractive and causing a lot more research to be done in this area. In the short-term it's painful and may become much worse before these alternatives hit the market.

Answer 25

There is no cause to press the panic button...

There are alternate fuels available (read hydrogen fuel, nuclear, solar, hydel) and it is estimated that given the current rate of development in the energy sector, alternate fuels can completely replace conventional ones in the next 3 decades or so...

However, it is ingenious to consume fuel with discreetness and conserve as much of it as possible..