

(2003) Burning Buried Sunshine: Human consumption of ancient solar energy - dredmorbius
http://globalecology.stanford.edu/DGE/Dukes/Dukes_ClimChange1.pdf

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dredmorbius
A good summary at The Economist:
<http://www.economist.com/node/2155375?Story_ID=2155375>

TL;DR: A single year's fossil fuel consumption represents 422 years of ancient
plant growth, only 10% of which is converted to petroleum or coal. Replacing
fossil fuel use from direct use of modern biomass would require 22% of current
plant growth, on top of the 15% already used by humans.

This excludes converting biomass to other forms (biodiesel, ethanol, etc.),
which would reduce end fuel energy by ~90% (or increase land area requirements
tenfold).

The lesson: while liquid fuels are hugely convenient and valuable, they'll be
very difficult to provide from biological origin. Humans will likely use much
less liquid fuel, particularly in transportation. Air travel especially will
be severely affected.

