Imagine a scenario where all living things on Earth could be converted into oil! It’s a wild concept, but one that prompts us to contemplate the immense scale of life on our planet and the potential energy it represents.
As of 2021, scientific estimates suggest that the total biomass – the mass of all living material – on Earth is approximately 550 gigatons of carbon (Gt C). This mind-boggling figure includes all forms of life – plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, and more.
Crude oil, the “black gold” that powers much of our modern world, primarily consists of hydrocarbons, which are compounds made up of carbon and hydrogen. When biomass turns into oil in nature, a process that takes millions of years and occurs under specific geological conditions, not all carbon in the biomass becomes part of the oil. Some of it is lost as gaseous carbon compounds during the conversion process.
For the sake of a rough estimate, let’s assume that about half of the biomass carbon (275 Gt C) could be converted into oil. The atomic mass of carbon is 12, and the atomic mass of hydrogen is approximately 1. Given that most hydrocarbons in crude oil have about twice as many hydrogen atoms as carbon atoms, the equivalent mass of hydrocarbons might be about 275 Gt C * (12+2*1)/12 = 322.5 Gt.
Crude oil’s density can vary, but a standard approximation is 0.88 kg/L. Thus, our very speculative estimate indicates that 322.5 billion tons of oil would amount to about 366 trillion liters of oil (860 billion barrels), which is nearly 52% of all oil reserves in the world (oil reserve in the world is 1.65 trillion barrels as of 2022).
Bear in mind that this is an extremely rough approximation. It assumes a simple 1:1 conversion of biomass carbon to oil, which is not how the natural process operates. Furthermore, it presupposes that all biomass on Earth could be subjected to the conditions that create oil, which isn’t possible. The estimate for biomass itself carries a considerable margin of error. However, it does provide some insight into the sheer magnitude of life on Earth.
Such an experiment is, of course, entirely theoretical and not practically or ethically feasible. However, these types of thought experiments can provide fascinating insights into the scale of life on our planet and the incredible energy potential it holds. While we should always strive to protect and sustain our planet’s biodiversity, it’s fascinating to explore these intriguing “what if” scenarios.