At around 1900 or so, we had enough proven oil reserves to last 17 years. When I asked my petroleum engineer brother-in-law about this he responded, "Sure. We don't need more than about 17 years of reserves. When it gets below that, we go our and find more. When it gets much above that, we stop looking."

We have a whopping 47 years of reserves because in recent history we have discovered huge new fields and made significant improvements in extraction technology. We have actually a glut of oil. If the governments of the world were not waging an all-out war against oil, the price of gasoline would probably be only about $1/gallon.

As for this mysterious 1.5 degrees C. threshold, we find many times the world has been much warmer, and yet these were, oddly enough, also times of thriving life all over the world. Why would this magical number be so devastating to life now when it was so beneficial millions of years ago?

If it's all the same to you, I'll sleep soundly tonight.