Just because, what do you think would happen if we suddenly ran out of oil, coal, and natural gas? Before you complain about this being dark, remember that you don't have to read this.

How am I going to cook my famous spaghetti without my oil :-(

Electricity can power all devices that use those substances. Cars, trains, boats, factories, and Trolldemort's stove would all go electric. More battery factories would need to be built to accommodate this.

Air travel would struggle. We'd probably need to chemically produce jet fuel to keep aircraft running until electric planes could be developed which would take several years due to the weight of batteries. Until then, the cost of travel would skyrocket.

I think people will fail to mention, firstly that if we were running out, we would know before it actually runs out
What does this mean you say?
Well, America would start invading certain countries with the last oil reserves
Actually the world powers would invade all the oil countries
This means that the 3rd world would run out of resources first
3rd world countries would start to topple themselves, especially the Muslim world
Israel might be screwed once it runs out of resources, yikes
The first world might have to use electric powered trains for a while
Until alternate modes of transportation are made
France would be ok I guess, since they've got several Nuclear plants
Most countries would lose their navy XD
US would still have its Air craft carriers, although redundant, and Submarines
Once an alternate form of transportation is discovered, a second colonization will happen
My guess they'll try to mine something in Africa, it's a huge continent
But yeah, this is like saying, what if we ran out of horses?
I wanna say I'm confident we'll come up with something new before we run out of oil

If oil ran out, i could not fry me fish! Or clean me shoes!

but chocolate will go extinct before oil!

Edited 10/1/2019 13:46:05

How would kids play Lego?

Saskatchewan will be mostly doomed. We don't have enough horses and old machines to replace all the combines and cars and such, so for any community here to survive we'd have to switch back to the old way of farming and hunting. We also don't have electric trains. One thing to note about nuclear and renewable resources is that in order for them to work well in a world without oil, the uranium mines, transportation system, food source, etc. would have to not rely at all on oil.

at least they'll still have melk!

Probably a war. Many people that are untouchable right now would get hurt. I kinda like that.

We're not going to run out of oil and gas and we're certainly not going to run out of coal. Stop believing in the peak oil lie. The climate scare and the peak oil scare is among many things an attempt to enlist public support to dismantle the Western economies.

If conventional oil and gas run low, there are viable fossil fuel alternatives that won't require restructuring the energy sector entirely. Shale oil is abundant in the US; oil sands are abundant in Canada, and coal can be converted into crude oil through liquefaction.

Have you tried snorting a line of coal?

I know we won't run out suddenly, but as much as we have we're still using it faster then it gets made by nature, so whether it takes 50 or 100 000 years it's going to happen. Like how a million dollars seems like a lot until you spend it all. Anyway, this thread is mainly theoretical.

new topic - helium is going extinct!

The effects would vary depending on country and region

Civil unrest and the staving of millions I suppose. All depends on how well efforts can be concentrated to ensure the survival of mechanised farming using other fuels. But a stable society can't last long without food sources and the time to adapt agriculture equipment would likely be too long. Additionally existing food stocks couldn't be transported in an efficient way; without trans ocianic shipping, trucking only area local to farmland would be in a good (relative) position.

Relying on existing renewable or nuclear power also in most places wouldn't be enough to support the existing power grid. Afaik most countries uses 20-70% non renewables / nuclear.
Without transportation without a clear future many people operating these facilities would abandon position in favour of protecting self and family.

But most of this wouldn't matter because panic would quickly set in and ensure this already large problems would be excabated. When SHTF no one is going to ensure they carry out there job the individual accumulation of which holds society together.

The film threads does a okay job of showing society break down although due to a different cause.

But oil won't suddenly run out so it doesn't matter, if scarcity increases certain less valuable uses of oil will be priced out. Alternative will likely be found, the primarily worrying thing would be imo if every oil based product can be replaced with a synthetic or alternative.

Edited 10/2/2019 18:09:53

Helium will become too expensive for non-industrial/medical use, but you can make your own hydrogen at home via electrolysis. Just don't bring the birthday candles too close to your balloons.