• Question: In your opinion how long will it take for all natural resorces to run out such as oil etc ?

    Asked by bananahammocks to David, Luna, Mark, Melanie, Probash on 23 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: David Pyle

      David Pyle answered on 23 Mar 2011:

      It all depends – we are probably past the ‘peak’ of oil reserves, but then as oil gets more scarce it will become more expensive, and so new reserves will become economic to exploit.. There are lots of mineral resources where our current rate of use far exceeds our capacity to match the demand, for anything other than a few years or decades: helium, phosphorus and rare earth elements are three current examples. Again, economics will probably start to drive new activities either in extraction, or creation or recycling before we actually run out!

    • Photo: Luna Munoz

      Luna Munoz answered on 23 Mar 2011:

      It depends on our use, such as if we can minimize our use or if we actually increase our use. However, if nothing changed then about 30-50 years I think the oil will run out. This is just one of the estimates out there but not an absolute time. It just means that we do need to be thinking of other sources.

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