[Oil-Finder]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MD', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Oil-Finder', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MD', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Oil-Finder', '.').
Is oil extracted and used throughout the entire world? Or is it used just around Niagara Falls? Since it is extracted and used around the entire world, the entire world would be the relevant frame of reference.

[Homesteader]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TonyPrep', 'M')ore trivia, which has no point whatsoever, except to demonstrate the power of the exponential function (excellently explained by Professor Albert Bartlett).

If we were using water like oil, over the last 150 years we'd have used only one tenth of Lake Ontario, leaving about 353 cubic miles left. How long would it take to use this remaining vast amount at, say, 1.5% growth per year? Well such a small percentage wouldn't have too much effect, surely? At present rates of consumption, we'd have 353 years of Lake Ontario left. But, at a rate that increases by 1.5% per year, it would be completely drained in 124 years, almost a third of the time that an R/P ratio indicates.

[TonyPrep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Homesteader', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TonyPrep', 'M')ore trivia, which has no point whatsoever, except to demonstrate the power of the exponential function (excellently explained by Professor Albert Bartlett).

If we were using water like oil, over the last 150 years we'd have used only one tenth of Lake Ontario, leaving about 353 cubic miles left. How long would it take to use this remaining vast amount at, say, 1.5% growth per year? Well such a small percentage wouldn't have too much effect, surely? At present rates of consumption, we'd have 353 years of Lake Ontario left. But, at a rate that increases by 1.5% per year, it would be completely drained in 124 years, almost a third of the time that an R/P ratio indicates.

[Homesteader]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TonyPrep', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Homesteader', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TonyPrep', 'M')ore trivia, which has no point whatsoever, except to demonstrate the power of the exponential function (excellently explained by Professor Albert Bartlett).

If we were using water like oil, over the last 150 years we'd have used only one tenth of Lake Ontario, leaving about 353 cubic miles left. How long would it take to use this remaining vast amount at, say, 1.5% growth per year? Well such a small percentage wouldn't have too much effect, surely? At present rates of consumption, we'd have 353 years of Lake Ontario left. But, at a rate that increases by 1.5% per year, it would be completely drained in 124 years, almost a third of the time that an R/P ratio indicates.

[Oil-Finder]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TonyPrep', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Homesteader', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TonyPrep', 'M')ore trivia, which has no point whatsoever, except to demonstrate the power of the exponential function (excellently explained by Professor Albert Bartlett).

If we were using water like oil, over the last 150 years we'd have used only one tenth of Lake Ontario, leaving about 353 cubic miles left. How long would it take to use this remaining vast amount at, say, 1.5% growth per year? Well such a small percentage wouldn't have too much effect, surely? At present rates of consumption, we'd have 353 years of Lake Ontario left. But, at a rate that increases by 1.5% per year, it would be completely drained in 124 years, almost a third of the time that an R/P ratio indicates.

[TonyPrep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Oil-Finder', 'P')eak, in 94 years? What the hell are you talking about? After we've sucked Lake Ontario dry, we've still got Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior to work on. Not to mention Lake Baikal and Lake Tanganyika.

[KevO]

??

To illustrate the comparison between oil and water mathematically, it would be this:-
We've burned well over half of the oil on the planet, so to use the correct comparison, we'd have evaportated over half of all the world's water - that's all the oceans, seas, rivers, lakes and ice in just 150 years.
Not bad
Truly fucked we are

Yoda

[Homesteader]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TonyPrep', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Oil-Finder', 'P')eak, in 94 years? What the hell are you talking about? After we've sucked Lake Ontario dry, we've still got Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior to work on. Not to mention Lake Baikal and Lake Tanganyika.

[MD]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Oil-Finder', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MD', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Oil-Finder', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MD', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Oil-Finder', '.').
Is oil extracted and used throughout the entire world? Or is it used just around Niagara Falls? Since it is extracted and used around the entire world, the entire world would be the relevant frame of reference.

[Homesteader]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MD', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Oil-Finder', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MD', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Oil-Finder', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MD', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Oil-Finder', '.').
Is oil extracted and used throughout the entire world? Or is it used just around Niagara Falls? Since it is extracted and used around the entire world, the entire world would be the relevant frame of reference.

[Palkerss]

For another comparison:

A 3-inch layer of all the oil mankind has used so far would cover a mind-boggling area of 805582 square miles.



[spoil]Math:
1 gallon is 231 square inches (thus 3 in * 77)
42 000 000 000 000 gallons used.
42 000 000 000 000 * 77 = 3234000000000000 sq inches
There are 144 sq inches in 1 sq foot.
3234000000000000 / 144 = 22458333333333,4 sq feet.
There are 27,878,400 square feet in 1 square mile.
22458333333333,4 / 27,878,400 = 805582 square miles.

According to this site, combined area of Gulf of Mexico and Hudson Bay approximately equals my calculations.[/spoil]

[TonyPrep]

What a pointless exercise. All of these comparisons have absolutely no bearing on the problems we face. Even Oil-Finder admitted that there was no point (it was a piece of trivia, he said) and yet he uses it as his signature line. So he admits there was no point to make and then proceeds to imagine that there is enough of a point to use it as his signature line. Perhaps he'd like to explain why the fact that the volume of oil used thus far is 1/10 of the volume of water in Lake Ontario is so significant to him that he feels it warrants repeating every time he posts?

It could mean that he has no understanding of the issues, of course.

[Oil-Finder]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TonyPrep', 'W')hat a pointless exercise. All of these comparisons have absolutely no bearing on the problems we face. Even Oil-Finder admitted that there was no point (it was a piece of trivia, he said) and yet he uses it as his signature line. So he admits there was no point to make and then proceeds to imagine that there is enough of a point to use it as his signature line. Perhaps he'd like to explain why the fact that the volume of oil used thus far is 1/10 of the volume of water in Lake Ontario is so significant to him that he feels it warrants repeating every time he posts?

It could mean that he has no understanding of the issues, of course.

[TonyPrep]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Oil-Finder', 'A')s I've said multiple times so far, it's just an exercise to get an idea of the scale/size of the oil consumed thus far. It is "trivia," but I find it nonetheless "interesting." Don't you ever find "trivia" to be "interesting?" I sometimes do, and this is one of those times.

[nero]

The comparison with niagara falls is apt but remember, it's only about 1/3 of the AMERICAN falls, The flow rate of the Canadian falls is 4 times as high.

Edit:
Ain't nothing new under the sun http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic17346-0.html

[Doly]

Comparisons are only useful when you are comparing two things you may want to compare. I don't think filling or covering water areas with oil gives you any sense of the scale of anything, because it's not comparing with anything that actually happens with oil in the real world.

A more interesting question is something like oil consumption per capita. How much is the amount of oil that the average American consumes in his lifetime? How does that compare with the average European or the average African?

[copious.abundance]

Arise thread, arise!