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Apparently some people think most or all crude petroleum isn't biological in origin? (hexbear.net)

submitted 10 hours ago by axont@hexbear.net to c/chat@hexbear.net

41 comments fedilink hide all child comments

So apparently a large-ish contingent of American reactionaries don't think crude oil is a finite resource. They believe the Earth regenerates it at a faster pace than it can be drilled, and this isn't a niche conspiracy theory either. I mentioned it off-hand at work after seeing a random tweet about it, then like 5 of my coworkers all nodded and agreed. One even used the term "abiotic oil."

Is this just cope or what? One of my coworkers literally said, "Well oil is like water, it goes through a cycle and gets replenished." Something about how crude oil is actually made through some kind of geological process, rather than decomposed algae/animal matter from millions of years ago. I think maybe there's evidence of abiotic hydrocarbon gasses existing from various chemical reactions with minerals, but I believe there's never been a convincing source of abiotic petroleum that couldn't also be explained as biological in origin.

They don't actually believe this, do they? It's just a thin kind of security blanket so they don't have to consider the reality of what fossil fuels truly are?

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[–] Vidiwell@hexbear.net 4 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

https://thespouter.substack.com/p/to-dispense-with-abiotic-oil

recommend a bit of "investigation" prior to right to speak. It has an interesting history. Mao and Stalin were abiotic oil guys for a time!

[–] GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 18 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

There is a difference between people believing retrospectively dumb shit in the past versus believing dumb shit today. I'm not going to call some 16th century natural philosopher dumb for believing in elan vital or whatever.

[–] Vidiwell@hexbear.net 6 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

the casual dunking from people with no idea of its historical background was more the point here. an interesting idea with a history in socialist science and instead reduced to the lowest common denominator for a cheap dunk is reddit culture for better or worse. Hence investigate...then dunk.

[–] kittin@hexbear.net 8 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

“Some Russian scientists investigated it in the 50s” and “Stalin was an abiotic oil guy” seems like a massive equivocation since Stalin wasn’t a geologist nor was he involved in geological research so far as I am aware aside from funding research into how to close the oil-production gap with the US.