World Energy Resources
Remaining reserves of fossil fuel are estimated as:
| Fuel | Proven energy reserves in ZJ (end of 2009) |
|---|---|
| Coal | 19.8 |
| Oil | 8.1 |
| Gas | 8.1 |
These are the proven energy reserves; real reserves may be up to a factor 4 larger. Significant uncertainty exists for these numbers. The estimation of the remaining fossil fuels on the planet depends on a detailed understanding of the Earth's crust. This understanding is still less than perfect. While modern drilling technology makes it possible to drill wells in up to 3 km of water to verify the exact composition of the geology, one half of the ocean is deeper than 3 km, leaving about a third of the planet beyond the reach of detailed analysis.
However one should keep in mind that these quantitative measures of the amount of proven reserves of the fossil fuels do not take into account several factors critical to the cost of extracting them from the ground and critical to the price of the energy extracted from the fossil fuels. These factors include the accessibility of fossil deposits, the level of sulfur and other pollutants in the oil and the coal, transportation costs, risky locations, etc. As said before easy fossils have been extracted long ago. The ones left in the ground are dirty and expensive to extract.
Read more about World Energy Resources: Renewable Resources
Famous quotes containing the words world, energy and/or resources:
“Now we are part of the world, and the world is part of us. If any part suffers, all suffer. If any part loses freedom, all will lose it.”
—Michael Blankfort. Lewis Milestone. Dickerman (Jack Webb)
“Crime is naught but misdirected energy. So long as every institution of today, economic, political, social, and moral, conspires to misdirect human energy into wrong channels; so long as most people are out of place doing the things they hate to do, living a life they loathe to live, crime will be inevitable.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Parents can offer their help by suggesting and locating resources likely to be unfamiliar to children, such as people, books, and materials that can be useful.”
—Dorothy H. Cohen (20th century)