Global reserves, fossil fuels

Table 3.12 summarises the global reserves and resources of fossil fuels. 

Fossil-fuel reserves can be utilised while limiting the contribution to global warming. 

Countries in the Middle East and Russia hold 70% of the world s dwindling reserves of oil and gas. Coal is the most abundant and widely distributed fossil fuel. Global natural gas reserves are large and currently yield a reserve/production ratio of 50 to 60 years. Nuclear power s share of worldwide electricity supplies has been steady at 16-17% for many years, but reactor safety and waste disposal problems are still matters of concern. 

Extractive reserves are not the panacea for forest conservation of all of Amazonia the appropriate conditions for such reserves exist at maximum for 25 percent of Brazilian Amazonia (Meneses 1994). Nevertheless, such an area would exceed that of France. At present, extractive reserves administered by IBAMA, the Brazilian Institute for Environment and Natural Renewable Resources, and extractive settlements administered by INCRA, the National Institute for Agrarian Reform, cover about three million hectares, representing about one percent of the closed canopy forest in Brazilian Amazonia (see Table 8.1). From a carbon perspective, these reserves and setdements store about 6 x 10 Mg (tons) C (400 Mg/ha x 0.5 Mg C/Mg biomass X 3 X 10 ha). This is equivalent to about 10 percent of the global annual flux of carbon to the atmosphere from fossil fuel sources. 

The consumption of fossil fuels is not sustainable. With business as usual, the proven and economically recoverable fossil reserves will be exhausted in little more than 100 years. Substitution of fossil fuels is therefore required anyway on the long term. If CO2 emission from fossil fuel combustion is responsible for adverse climate changes like global wanning, substitution is desirable on the short term. The share of the renewable energy sources like wind, hydropower and biomass may be increased in a relatively short time. Each of these traditionally well known sources can contribute a... 

The system outlined in "An End To Global Warming" has the potential to provide humanity with plentiful energy for hundreds of years without damage to the environment. It will be easily used by all nations, from the least to the most developed. It will reduce international tensions arising from competition over fossil fuel reserves. 

---