Sustainable oil....?

[kalian]

Two VERY interesting articles about the possibility that oil
replenishes itself from deeper reservoirs.

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38645

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.07/gold_pr.html

If this is even remotely true and this is being kept a "secret" by
oil corporations, then we've got ourselves a MAJOR issue...

[Old and In the Way]

1. It would be one of the great cons of all time, if true.

How to prove, though?

[htuttle]

2. Read it...Bah!

Thomas Gold is an astrophysicist, not a biologist.

Among other things, he's stating that oil is inorganic, in fact that life developed from oil, not the other way around. I have far fewer problems with the Earth-bound aspect of the 'deep biosphere', since there are an abundance of microorganisms in the Earth's crust.

However, he's also asserting that there's microbial life inside the Moon. He deduces this because certain lunar seismic data lead him to believe there is a lot of Methane inside the Moon, therefore there must be microbial life.

Sigh.

I've heard this theory floated before, however -- I think it was about a year or two ago. It was probably an echo of something Gold wrote.

[RC]

3. Thomas Gold is a

Quack. How did oil form in the refirst place?

[Frodo]

4. Astrophysicist or Biologist?

Why wouldn't I be looking for a Geologist or Chemist?

[htuttle]

5. He doesn't really provide any geological or chemical arguments

Only the idea of a 'deep biosphere' where primitive microbes eat inorganic petroleum.

About the only evidence he seems to provide whatsoever is that there seems to be microbial life much deeper than we may have realized. That seems to be the single point his entire theory is built on.

But if you were going to look for actual evidence of this inorganic petroleum, you certainly would want a geologist and a chemist, true.