Reservas petrolíferas crescem!

É vulgar ouvir ambientalistas defenderem o investimento em energias alternativas usando o pretexto das reservas petrolíferas estarem a acabar. Infelizmente para estes, as reservas estão a crescer:

The changing landscape reflects an ambitious quest to develop a new source of oil. Major companies -- faced with tougher prospects for developing big new oil fields around the world -- are doing what was once unthinkable: sinking billions of dollars into projects to wring oil out of deposits of petroleum buried amid sand and clay.

Until a few years ago, such projects -- called "oil sands" or "tar sands" -- sputtered at the fringes of the oil industry. But since technological breakthroughs brought down costs and oil prices have soared, companies have been investing heavily here. Oil-sands production is now profitable when a barrel of oil sells in the low $20s, analysts said -- far below the recent $50 range.
(...)
The oil sands also are enriching the province and creating thousands of high-paying jobs. On the edge of town, a modern museum has interactive exhibits showing how the mining and refining processes work. One exhibit allows visitors to smell samples of the oil sands. "As we call it: Sniff the smell of money," said Bert MacKay, the museum supervisor.

(in Washington Post, via Guest of Time)

O que anteriormente não era contabilizado! O desenvolvimento tecnológico tem destas coisas...