There are 1.65 trillion barrels of proven oil reserves in the world as of 2016.

The world has proven reserves equivalent to 46.6 times its annual consumption levels. This means it has about 47 years of oil left (at current consumption levels and excluding unproven reserves).

This means that the oil is going to run out in our lifetime

Source/more reading: https://www.worldometers.info/oil/

Update: It is infact not true (or just partially true), because it only considers already known oil reserves that can be pumped out with current technology.

There is more oil that can potentially be used as technology and infrastructure advances, so the estimate of 50 years is wrong.

For the correction thanks to Cephalotrocity@biglemmowski.win (their original comment)

  • tobogganablaze@lemmus.org
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    2 months ago

    I heard the same thing 30 years ago.

    There are still unproven reserves waiting to be discovered.

    • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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      2 months ago

      Under the Arctic. Underneath the seabeds in the deep oceans. Probably other places that are hard to get to right now.

      The question that really needs to be asked is not can we find more oil, we absolutely can and will seek it out. We should ask, can the environment that we live in support more burning of even more oil? We all know that answer, that’s why we’re cutting our emissions down rapidly. /s

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        The environment that we live in is more fertile now that we’ve got more CO2 in the atmosphere.

        More people die of cold than of heat.

        I’d say our environment is A-OK with us burning oil.

        • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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          2 months ago

          Fertile for what though? It’s true there is more greening in some places, but that doesn’t equate to a better world for humans and animals used to the previous climate. Plants are better at adapting to this, for now anyway.

          The fertility of the soil that I brought up isn’t even about CO2.

          Fun fact, with climate change you can get both cold and heat deaths. Warming of the Earth doesn’t mean just heat.

          Need to get outside of that echo chamber of climate denial. Oh right, you all have mostly moved on from denial to “it’s fine”. I forget the talking points sometimes. Harder to keep up with those than the facts.

        • helloworld55@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          I genuinely don’t understand what you mean. Fertile how? It’s pretty obvious global temperatures are increasing, heat related deaths are more common in areas that previously weren’t an issue. Catastropic environmental events seem to happen every couple months.

          You have an article you can share because it sounds like a bad take

    • collapse_already@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      The amount discovered in each of the last three years has been less than a year’s worth of consumption. The global consumption rate is still rising. At some point we will necessarily run out. The lack of readily available reserves has already lead to “innovations” like fracking, oil sands, and deep sea extraction. Those techniques weren’t profitable when production is easy, but they have delayed the inevitable.

      I fully expect to see solar powered wells extracting oil that otherwise has a negative EROI in my lifetime.