A hundred million years sounds an incomprehensibly long amount of time to us, but to Earth, it's nothing special and that's about how long it takes for our planet to produce all the oil we pumped out so far. Earth has a lot of time. We are most likely not the first and most likely not the last.
That's not strictly true. Oil production was not a linear process that slowly built up over time. Oil is from plant matter that was not able to fully decompose prior to the evolution of fungi that were capable of breaking down cellulose. Now that we have fungi, there will not be new fossil fuels.
Tree rot didn't exist until 300 million years ago. Prior to that, it'd just fall on the ground and burn. Failing that, it'd sink into the earth and become petrified.
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u/Lord_Shisui 20h ago
A hundred million years sounds an incomprehensibly long amount of time to us, but to Earth, it's nothing special and that's about how long it takes for our planet to produce all the oil we pumped out so far. Earth has a lot of time. We are most likely not the first and most likely not the last.