• Question: In the future will our natural recourses run out, e.g. coal?

    Asked by to Nat, Nate, Roberto, Sam, Sarah on 18 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Sam Connolly

      Sam Connolly answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      If we carry on using them at the rate we are at the moment, our natural resources will run out, yes. Fossil fuels like coal and oil take millions of years to make, so we’re using them too fast for more to be made before we run out. Things like Uranium, which powers nuclear reactors, will just be gone when we run out. That’s one of the reasons why a lot of people want to stop relying on fuels like that for our energy, and use things that don’t run out instead, like solar power and wind power.

      Materials we use for making things, like metals, will run out unless we make sure we recycle what we use – there are rare metals in flat screen TVs, for example, which will run out in ten or twenty years if we don’t start taking them back out of old ones that aren’t used any more! That’s why recycling is very important too.

    • Photo: Natasha Stephen

      Natasha Stephen answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      Yes, they will.

      Coal, oil and natural gases, known as fossil fuels, are all geological products that have formed over many millions if not billions of years! We have only started using them up in the last 200 years and the Earth cannot make enough new supplies of these fossil fuels quick enough so they will run out! The demand is simply too high.

      There are other alternatives to fossil fuels and many of the big oil and gas companies, BP, Shell, Centrica etc. are all funding a lot of research into renewable energy sources to help plan for the future when our reserves ‘dry up’.

      That being said, however, there are still a lot of oil and gas reserves across the Earth that aren’t being used at the moment because they are difficult to get to. Once all the easy to extract ones are used up though, we will have to start digging deeper and using this difficult sources.

    • Photo: Sarah Casewell

      Sarah Casewell answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      Yes – we only have a finite amount of coal and gas etc and it takes millions of years to make more, so once it’s gone, it’s gone.

      We are looking at other power sources though like nuclear power which lasts a lot longer, and renewable energy like solar, wind and wave power which won’t run out.

      Lots of people have solar power already on their houses!

    • Photo: Roberto Trotta

      Roberto Trotta answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      Unfortunately we are using up all natural resources on Earth much faster that they can be replenished – not just coal, but also gas/oil (and producing pollutants that cause climate change when we burn them) and many other elements that we use to build mobile phones and other electronic equipment. Plus, the world’s population is growing fast, and that also puts a strain our natural resources.

      We simply have to find a way of living with less and to share the resources of our world in a fairer way. If everybody had the same living standards as people in the UK, we would need 4 planet earths to keep us going!

    • Photo: Nate Bastian

      Nate Bastian answered on 25 Jun 2014:

      Yes, unfortunately they will, and by using them up, we will be causing a lot of damage to our atmosphere (global warming, ocean acidification). However, the sun’s energy won’t run out for billions of years, so that’s out best chance. As technology improves, I think we’ll see more and more use of solar energy, and hopefully that will solve our energy crises.

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