Why are scientists concerned about the rate humans are using up fossils fuels?

Answer 1

Because our earth is, as some like to call it, an island. Many of the resources contained on our planet are finite or limited, and if we start running low, there's nowhere else we can go to replenish our supplies. No scientist really knows how large the earth's fossil fuel reserves are, but what they do know is this: fossil fuels take millions and millions of years to form, and we're pulling them out of the earth and burning them up far faster than they're forming. Accessible fossil fuels will run out sooner or later--but not before getting extremely risky to obtain and expensive to purchase. Oil, coal, and natural gas may seem abundant today, but that abundance cannot last.