[GBlist] Re: Abiotic Oil

[Sarah Holland/David Foley <hollandfoley@acadia.net>]

on 01/29/2002 10:05 AM, Renewable News Network at rnn@rnn.com wrote:

> The abiotic oil theory differs from what we were taught.  I, for
> one, am not qualified to say how oil is/was created.  Even if the
> world's oil reserves were proven to be equal to the volume of the
> Earth, we would not now be able to extract it.  In any case, the rate
> of replenishment might be inadequate to serve the demand.  The world is
> already awash in oil.  But that won't last according to the position
> presented at the http://www.dieoff.org site.  -ross@rnn.com

Perhaps this would be a good time to point out that a resource can be
limited either at its source or its sink.  We will very likely deal with the
limit to the atmosphere's ability to absorb pollutants before we exhaust all
the stores of hydrocarbons in the earth's crust.  Similarly, there are
probably still ample reserves of mercury and lead on Earth, but the ability
of the biosphere to deal with increased lead and mercury loading from humans
may already have been surpassed.

Life plays an integral role in the bio-geo-chemical cycles of the planet.
Isn't it interesting that life has sequestered large volumes of
hydrocarbons, calcium carbonate, and other minerals deep into the Earth's
crust, in order to maintain optimum conditions for life?  Maybe it's not
wise to release large quantities of these compounds back into the biosphere,
especially at rates that double roughly every 20 years.

- David Foley
-- 
Holland & Foley Building Design L.L.C.
232 Beech Hill Rd.
Northport, Maine 04849 USA
p: (207) 338-9869 f: (207) 338-9859 e: hollandfoley@acadia.net


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