What if coal, oil, and gas were not produced by the decay of plant and animal matter but were instead geological byproducts of the earth's mantle, partially digested by bacteria living deep in the earth? Thomas Gold's 1992 article "The Deep, Hot Biosphere" opened the door to just that question. It would certainly explain why predictions that we are shortly to run out of coal, oil, and/or natural gas are always wrong. The position has been bolstered by more recent discoveries of bacterial life at heretofore unknown depths of rock. The jury's still out on this one.
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