Physical Address
23,24,25 & 26, 2nd Floor, Software Technology Park India, Opp: Garware Stadium,MIDC, Chikalthana, Aurangabad, Maharashtra – 431001 India
CLAIM
Oil can regenerate faster than it is depleted.
FACT
Oil is being used up at a rate faster than it can regenerate as the natural process of ‘oil formation’ involves “millions of years”.
WHAT THEY SAY
Multiple Facebook posts have gone viral with the claim that “Oil is the 2nd most prevalent liquid in earth next to water and regenerates within the earth faster than it could ever be depleted.” The same text in these Facebook posts also claims that “At the Geneva Convention in 1892, J.D. Rockefeller paid scientists to refer to oil as fossil fuel to induce the idea of scarcity.”
One such Facebook post with the claim is here.
Such claims are often used to make other climate-related false claims like ‘Fossil Fuels burning has no connection with global warming and climate change’ or ‘Fossil Fuels will regenerate so we don’t need alternate renewable energy source’, etc.
WHAT WE FOUND
Fossil fuels contain carbon and hydrogen. They are formed naturally from decomposing plants and animals in the Earth’s crust. Over the last century, the rampant burning of fossil fuels by humans has led to the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) which in turn has contributed to the human-induced rise in greenhouse gases. This has led to an increase in the average global temperature of the world contributing to global warming and climate change.
Some of the common examples of fossil fuels are coal, oil and natural gas. The National Geographic Educational website says, “Coal is a material usually found in sedimentary rock deposits where rock and dead plant and animal matter are piled up in layers. More than 50 percent of a piece of coal’s weight must be from fossilized plants. Oil is originally found as a solid material between layers of sedimentary rock, like shale. This material is heated in order to produce the thick oil that can be used to make gasoline. Natural gas is usually found in pockets above oil deposits. It can also be found in sedimentary rock layers that don’t contain oil. Natural gas is primarily made up of methane.”
Fossil-fuel formation takes millions of years
Scientific research has shown that the process of fossil-fuel formation takes millions of years. Thus they are referred to as non-renewable sources of energy. The National Geographic website thus says, “fossil fuels are a nonrenewable resource and waiting millions of years for new coal, oil, and natural gas deposits to form is not a realistic solution”. It is thus impossible to balance out the consumption and production process.
“It’s certainly not an instantaneous process. The rate at which petroleum is forming is not going to be the solution to our petroleum supplies,” William Thomas, a geologist at the University of Kentucky told Live Science.
Nearing Exhaustion
Studies have also shown that fossil fuels will not last forever and in fact, they are nearing exhaustion. Experts have also concluded that ‘oil’ will be the first fossil fuel to get exhausted. For example, according to scientific data, North Sea oil deposits were made 150 million years ago and Britain’s coal was formed 300 million years ago. On the other hand, consumption these days is going at a rate that will spend them just in hundreds of years.
According to the oil industry company, BP, the world has just 53.3 years left before oil reserves run dry. BP’s annual report (2013) says that approximately 1.688 trillion barrels of crude oil are left in the world and this, according to current rates of usage, will last only for 53.3 years.
Predicted rates of global fossil fuel depletion
Source: Researchgate
The J.D. Rockefeller claim
It has also been claimed in the viral Facebook post that J.D. Rockefeller is the person who first coined the term ‘fossil fuels’. “At the Geneva Convention in 1892, J.D. Rockefeller paid scientists to refer to oil as fossil fuel to induce the idea of scarcity,” mentions the Facebook post.
John Davison Rockefeller was an American businessman who has been widely considered the wealthiest American ever and the richest person in modern history. He made his fortune in the oil business after founding the Standard Oil Company.
Actually, the term ‘fossil fuels’ was not coined by Rockefeller, but was conceived much earlier by German chemist Caspar Neumann. It was first used by Neumann in the index of the English translation of the book, The Chemical Works of Caspar Neumann, which was done in the year 1759.
