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[IronyOwl]

Yeah, the question isn't so much 'when will we run out?' than 'when will it become uneconomical to extract it or use it for x purpose?'

As I understand it, we're "running out" of oil because we were "running out" of coal and had to find an alternative. Natural gas is the next step on cleaner but harder to harvest and transport, but we're not through enough with oil for it to be a common alternative. We use it, but nobody's nervously wondering how much we have left.

Except certain fear-mongering environmentalists...

Notice the quotation marks around "expert"? They matter.

Also, not everyone recognizes a fear-mongering environmentalist when they see one, particularly when their own pet beliefs match what the nut-job "expert" is spouting (the earth is being ruined! We should all live healthy, natural lives like our ancestors so we can die at 40).

These are just out of the blue political jabs. Perfectly mirroring the way BIG OIL spends OBSCENE AMOUNTS OF MONEY trying to HIDE THE TRUTH about GLOBAL WARMING!

I'm always worried about our fishy resources.  Ocean Acidification could kill them all.   

Fishy resources are their own, uniquely beautiful form of stupid. Like passing the goose that lays golden eggs through rollers to squeeze out every last bit of egg as soon as you can, because if you stop for just one second everyone else will get your share.

[TempAcc]

ALL THE DELICIOUS FISH MUST BE SAVED

I want to taste that delishus whale flesh. Why haven't we started breeding whales for meat yet? >:U

[Frumple]

I'm always worried about our fishy resources.  Ocean Acidification could kill them all.   

Hey, deoxygenation could get them instead/too.

That one we could arguably be less worried about, in a sense. If it happens we're back at the largest mass extinction event in earth's history and almost certainly going with them so it doesn't really matter :V

At least I think I remember the acidification being the more survivable of the two for terrestrial macroorganisms. Decent odds of both happening, though, if either one of them really takes off, iirc.

[MrRoboto75]

I can give you two conclusions:

We have at least 6.

There is a probability above 0 that we will all die before we biologically all die.

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

I'll give you a real simple answer: A hell of a lot longer than you think they will.

That is precisely why I am asking.

Based on some comments, I'll adjust the question to ask when it will be uneconomical to keep extracting different types of resources.

[smjjames]

I'll give you a real simple answer: A hell of a lot longer than you think they will.

That is precisely why I am asking.

Based on some comments, I'll adjust the question to ask when it will be uneconomical to keep extracting different types of resources.

The only problem with predicting that is what maniac and others said, we can only predict for the current course and some deviation from it, but there will always be unpredictable things happening to screw with the predictions. Be it market forces, state of the global economy, new technologies, politicians doing things...

[Flying Dice]

Current projections for [insert resource here] reserves indicate that they will be depleted approximately 250 years from [insert current date].

There's your template for how 95% of politicians, corporate science-creatures, and business drones will answer.