Pretty O'Neill cylinders, but...

Lucio de Souza Coelho wrote:

>
> I also read "The Deep Hot Biosphere" and it also destroyed completely
> my faith in the conventional explanation for oil and coal as fossil
> fuels. However, I don't know if there will ever be a away to explore
> directly the Methane Domain - if there is a viable way, then I think
> that hydrocarbons would be virtually endless...

The question is replacement rate, no matter what the actual source of
the "fossil" fuels. The "deep hot biosphere", if it exists, is not very
productive. We are currently using fossil fuels at between hundreds of
thousands and tens of millions of times the replacement rate. That's
simply not sustainable.

World enegy use increased a factor of 16 during the 20th century. The
growth rate will slow somewhat this century, as population growth slows.
But an increase of a factor close to 10 isn't unlikely, and would be
good for the world if it could be sustainably supplied. That means that
for the next 100 years we actually need 1000 years worth of current
energy supply. Fossil fuels, even including methane hydrates, cannot
provide energy at such an increasing rate.

Arthur