When oil and gas runs out
By Aygun Badalova
We live today in a world full of natural resources; those are the basis of our modern life. Everything needed to enjoy the modern concepts of today's technology. The common thread between all these things we use in our daily life f from - from foodstuffs to household goods - are all made possible by fossil fuel.
Fossil fuel includes coal, oil and natural gas.
Most of us who own a car have had the misfortune oat one time or another to run out gas. But would happen when the planet runs out of gas?
There has been much written about what would happen when the world runs out of oil and gas and how the world would cope with that problem. A number of books have been written on the topic and many questions have been asked, and many proposals have been made on how to manage the problem of exhaustion of hydrocarbon resources.
However, a no one can quite imagine the full consequences of such a scenario.
At this point in time, experts estimate that the world's hydrocarbon reserves will last for 100-150. Some people may be misled to believe that time is ample time for humanity to think of some way of resolving the issue.
"This is the problem of the future generations," they may even say. However what is 100, 200 and even 500 years for humanity? This is not as long as it may seem.
The exhaustion of the earth's resources is real and it is happening. The world is inevitably rushing towards this crisis. The question now is how to prepare for it and how to prevent a terrible disaster.
It is not so difficult to conjure images of what may happen in such a situation. Wars for survival, vast migrations, economic collapse, especially in the less developed countries. On the other hand under-developed countries, ironically, have far less to loose and there're fore could find themselves ahead of the starting block.
What to do in order to prevent this all? Most of the countries have already asked this question and are on the way to finding the solution.
The beginning of development of alternative energy sources was a good step forward. Sun, wind, water, plants are perfect sources of energy, which serves not only as alternative to traditional energy sources, but also as a good solution to environmental problems.
The potential of humanity is unlimited. It does not stop finding new sources of energy. There are also some non-standard sources. For example, some of 0India's villages now get biofuel from recycled rice husks. Algae contain large amounts of fatty molecules that can be extracted and converted into biodiesel. And that is only several examples among countless numbers.
However just developing alternative energy sources is not enough. People should learn to use resources efficiently. Thanks to new technologies humanity has got an access to natural resources, which, as we said before are not eternal. But irrational and careless use of these resources may cause irretrievable consequences.
Energy efficiency is one of the best ways to save the world's energy resources as well as to reduce pollution.
Today there are a number of countries which remain dependent on oil. Their economic situation as well as their people's living standards relies on oil revenues. And that is mostly concerned to Arab countries. In case of such countries, the best way for them to prevent negative consequences of resources exhaustion crisis is to diversify its economy and develop non-oil sectors, such as tourism or agriculture.
By doing all this people can save the world from crisis. Only rational use of resources that is given to us by nature and living in the harmony with it will enable the world and the humanity to prosper.
The power of the nature is boundless. It gives us all its richness, and the question is how to use it without damaging.