Are we de-stabilising the earth?

[Mr Gorsky]

Just listening to a report on the radio that Russia has restricted oil and gas exploration (among other things) to companies that are at least 51% Russian owned, and I got to thinking.

There has been a lot of talk about what will happen fuel-wise when we use up the earth's store of fossil fuels, but what effect does the removal of said fuels have on the stability of the rest of the earth's crust where those fuels have been removed.

Anyone have any take on this, or can point me towards any appropriate reading matter?

Cheers,

[russ_watters]

Insignificant.

[Swift]

There are occassionally local effects (and not just from oil); for example sink holes when ground water is pumped out. But effecting the Earth as a whole, it's less than a pimple on an elephant.