‘The Bottomless Well’ at 20: Is Energy on Earth Still ‘Infinite’?

What is infinite? I’m asking because nothing we can see, touch, or burn is. The Earth’s matter is finite — you can tally it up with enough math and patience. Same with the Solar System, the Milky Way, even the bloated supercluster we’re tucked inside. If matter’s measurable, so is energy. That includes every drop of oil, every puff of gas, every fleck of coal, and every sunbeam our spinning rock receives. Yet “peak oil” has been the boogeyman since the ‘70s, always just around the corner, always slipping away with every shock discovery of another ocean-floor reservoir. And here’s the twist: the old bedtime story of fossil fuels being dino-juice is getting ripped up — oil and gas aren’t relics of prehistoric beasties, but byproducts of the Earth’s own ongoing geological churn. Turns out, the planet might be making more of the stuff even as we burn it. https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2025/04/09/the_bottomless_well_at_20_is_energy_on_earth_still_infinite_1101891.html

'The Bottomless Well' at 20: Is Energy on Earth Still 'Infinite'? | Rudolf Huber | 15 comments

What is infinite? I’m asking because nothing we can see, touch, or burn is. The Earth’s matter is finite — you can tally it up with enough math and patience. Same with the Solar System,…

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