What if?

[T-Man]

This is about two "what if's" namely;

[1] What if there was no carboniferous period, 320 million years ago.

[2] What if there was no oil producing period, there is no specific date for this, as I understand it billions of years ago countless billions of tiny crustaceans lived & died in the oceans around the world, their life period was very short, but they ate, bred & died in their billions, one of the components of those tiny bodies was on oily substance & as they died this substance sank to the sea bed & over those billions of years formed vast quantities of crude oil which has sustained the production of refined oil & petrol in many countries to this day & beyond.

So here are the questions;

If there was no carboniferous period, ie; no trees growing & dying, with no humans yet to make use of the timber, there would be none to eventually lay down thick seams of coal, no coal seams, no trains, [& no wood-burning trains] no coal fired electricity production = no electric heat, light etc

If there was no oil, as surmised earlier, a similar situation develops, only much much more important, no petrol, no cars, no diesel, no heavy transport & no airplanes, [aircraft fuel is a derivitive of petroleum as you know]

Of course oil can be made by growing rape, sunflowers etc but nowhere near enough to power everything that depends on crude oil, even if every land surface in the world was covered by these crops & we have to remember that there'd be no oil to power the heavy machinery needed to gather & transport the crops & so on, without oil to process these crops, the whole thing would come to a dead end, & the crops would be wasted.

I know I've painted a very gloomy picture, but as the title says, "what if?", any ideas guys??

I would say that there would be no human life.

 

[spywarebanisher]

bs. humans would live another way. its adaptation

 

[T-Man]

We wouldn't be humans then, there would be no air to breath, no food, we would be totally different.

 

[esa193]

if there was no oil im sure different fuels and different sources of energy would have been discovered... and to bad that didnt happen because maybe one of them might have been a lot better for the enviorment

 

[FlightSimBoy]

Carboniferous period. Emphasis on carbon. You see, carbon is THE primary building block of life. Not just life, EVERYTHING. Look at coal and oil.

So, keep that in mind. Carboniferous period = carbon production, right? Theres your answer. No carbon = no life at all.

These are VERY good questions, Brookie. I know you have sparked my interest in researching this.

 

[Brookfield]

Carboniferous period. Emphasis on carbon. You see, carbon is THE primary building block of life. Not just life, EVERYTHING. Look at coal and oil.

So, keep that in mind. Carboniferous period = carbon production, right? Theres your answer. No carbon = no life at all.

These are VERY good questions, Brookie. I know you have sparked my interest in researching this.

Good post as usual & thanks for your comment!, but I already pointed out most of this about carbon didn't I?, no, p'raps I didn't mention that there wouldn't be life, not as we know it anyway, , oops! anyway that's just what I want, as I said I believe, pick holes in my theories, I feel I must have slipped up somewhere!, BTW I didn't go to Google as some of you must have thought, it was all in my head.