• Question: when do you think fossil fuels will run out and, when they do, what impact will it have on everyday life ?

    Asked by 451enec42 to Tadhg, Yasmin on 22 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by 762enec38.
    • Photo: Tadhg O'Donovan

      Tadhg O'Donovan answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      Hi @451enec42,

      Fossil fuels are predicted to run out by the end of this century – which seems like a long time away but really it isn’t that far at all. We will have to deal with this problem a lot sooner though, for two reasons:

      1) as fuel supplies become scarce, like anything else they will become more valuable/expensive and that will make us all poorer – unless we find an alternative source of energy
      and
      2) we’d create far too much CO2 if we did burn all the available fossil fuels – leading to much higher temperatures and real climate change.

      I hope you’re like me and see the need to change to renewable energy! Europe has set a target to reduce CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050 – so hopefully we can meet or even beat that target!

    • Photo: Yasmin Ali

      Yasmin Ali answered on 23 Jun 2015:

      It’s quite hard to predict when fossil fuels will run out, different sources give different numbers. It’s also dependent on what we decide to do as a planet, if we decide to tackle climate change and invest in renewable energy sources, fossil fuels can stay in the ground and won’t run out. If we carry on using them at the rate we do right now, then estimates say we have 50 to 100 years… but we will have put too much Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere and have bigger problems to deal with.

      It’s difficult to predict what impact it could have on everyday life… but I think we can adapt and change our lifestyles to a more sustainable way of life, so hopefully we will be ok!

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