Does oil drilling effect earth?

[Fraggle Rocker]

There have always been natural seeps of oil into the oceans, and erosion sometimes exposes oil deposits which then find their way into water. Natural sources account for as much as 46% of oil at sea. So why would oil-eating bacteria have only evolved since the human oil industry started? Considering how fast bacteria can evolve, one would think that they would have appeared in Paleozoic times - as soon as the first oil deposits began to seep.

Well perhaps they did, and we've only now come to notice them.

Your answer to BoSmoke's old question about the formation of crude oil - that it will never form again - seems a bit of a severe blanket statement. New oil can be formed in rotting garbage even today.

It may form but there won't be huge reservoirs of it. Those were special circumstances: dead trees lying around that were incapable of rotting because there were no organisms that could break down the lignin. It was only when they were buried and acted upon by sloooow physical forces that they changed into petroleum and natural gas. Today they are acted upon by much speedier biological processes and are recycled into the growth of other organisms. The little bit of oil that forms on garbage--even considering how much garbage we create--is nothing compared to millions of generations of the planet-enveloping forests of the Carboniferous Era.

BTW, why was this thread resurrected after 3 years?

I'm sure the BP spill has piqued many people's interest in the science of oil. Google searches on "oil drilling" have doubtless caused this thread to pop up on quite a few desktops. This is one of the ways we get new members. I fell in here from a Google search on some topic or other in linguistics ten years ago.

 

[Starthane Xyzth]

It may form but there won't be huge reservoirs of it. Those were special circumstances: dead trees lying around that were incapable of rotting because there were no organisms that could break down the lignin. It was only when they were buried and acted upon by sloooow physical forces that they changed into petroleum and natural gas. Today they are acted upon by much speedier biological processes and are recycled into the growth of other organisms..

That certainly puts paid to the assumption that future intelligent species on Earth, which may evolve tens or hundreds of millions of years from now, will have the same resources available to them that we do. If, as you say, fossil fuel deposits will not gradually re-accumulate once humans have depleted them, our successors would have to develop industries based mostly on burning wood and biofuels. They will deforest their world far faster than we have, and suffer rampant famines from turning farmland over to fuel crops.

 

[Grim_Reaper]

suffer rampant famines from turning farmland over to fuel crops.

Oh please I am sick and tired of hear this song. There is lots of Non food crops that have been reduced such as Tobacco and Sugar beets. Ever tree hugging hippy seems to have an issue with every thing that people try to do for the environment. If it is not saying the windmills are too noisy to solar panels bleaching the ground they stand on or there will be rampant famine if we grow Bio fuel crops. There will be no shortage I know of several farms that would sell there wife and left nut for the opportunity to grow more crops to make more money. I think the best way for environmental change to take place is for all the Tree Hugging hippy complainers to take a deep breath and hold it until they well DIE.

 

[Starthane Xyzth]

Oh please I am sick and tired of hear this song. ...I think the best way for environmental change to take place is for all the Tree Hugging hippy complainers to take a deep breath and hold it until they well DIE.

First of all, friend - I'm not a hippy!

Second of all, you seem to have missed the point of my post. I was not criticizing the real biofuel industry - although primary biofuels, such as palm oil, are responsible for a lot of ongoing deforestation, and many forests are still being unsustainably harvested for fuelwood, especially in Africa. Second and third-generation biofuels are more environmentally friendly, and I fully support their development.

I was thinking of hypothetical far-future, nonhuman civilizations, evolving on an Earth without significant fossil fuel deposits. As soon as their industrial revolution began, they would strip the Earth of wood and begin growing biofuels everywhere, at the expense of subsistence agriculture - because they would have nothing else to burn.

 

[Grim_Reaper]

First of all, friend - I'm not a hippy!

Second of all, you seem to have missed the point of my post. I was not criticizing the real biofuel industry - although primary biofuels, such as palm oil, are responsible for a lot of ongoing deforestation, and many forests are still being unsustainably harvested for fuelwood, especially in Africa. Second and third-generation biofuels are more environmentally friendly, and I fully support their development.

I was thinking of hypothetical far-future, nonhuman civilizations, evolving on an Earth without significant fossil fuel deposits. As soon as their industrial revolution began, they would strip the Earth of wood and begin growing biofuels everywhere, at the expense of subsistence agriculture - because they would have nothing else to burn.

Ok well I was not calling you a HIPPY presey but now after you cleared that up I think WOO WOO might be a better description. It is a moot point about Far off non Humaniod persons needed Fossil fuels as they likely would not need them anyway. So my statements still stand.

 

[Kajalamorth]

Okay guys lets start using Hydrogen Fuel cell again. Come on we want hindenburg to happen again right?

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

That certainly puts paid to the assumption that future intelligent species on Earth, which may evolve tens or hundreds of millions of years from now, will have the same resources available to them that we do. If, as you say, fossil fuel deposits will not gradually re-accumulate once humans have depleted them, our successors would have to develop industries based mostly on burning wood and biofuels. They will deforest their world far faster than we have, and suffer rampant famines from turning farmland over to fuel crops.

No. There is already a resurgence of grudging acceptance of nuclear power plants. Nobody wants one in their neighborhood of course, but they will see to it that they're built in the neighborhoods where the people with the least political power live.

We could probably get by with nuclear power for two or three centuries, without creating so much waste that disposing of it would be a scary problem. During that time we could build gigantic orbiting solar converters that beam all the power we need to earth, via microwave. This is actually feasible, the details were worked out 45 years ago and I've posted this at much greater length on other threads.

The only problem of course is that the whole human race must have the will to do it, including governments, corporations and other powerful groups. It's such a big project that it has to be the #1 priority for everyone everywhere.

And what are the chances of that happening? The odds are that we will end up with nuclear plants that go on forever, leaving the waste dumps as a problem for our great-great-great...^100 grandchildren.

 

[Trippy]

We could probably get by with nuclear power for two or three centuries, without creating so much waste that disposing of it would be a scary problem. During that time we could build gigantic orbiting solar converters that beam all the power we need to earth, via microwave. This is actually feasible, the details were worked out 45 years ago and I've posted this at much greater length on other threads.

I don't know if you're aware of it or not, but they're working on a pilot project in California as we speak.

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

I don't know if you're aware of it or not, but they're working on a pilot project in California as we speak.

Crap, I haven't spent much time back home in years! Maybe they need my help!