The peak oil bashing truly bores me. Let's talk 'Peak Coal' instead, and how IT affects your ostensible "non-peak oil" energy-economic outlook:
The Oil Drum: Europe | Peak Coal - Coming Soon? Canadian geologist David Hughes recently claimed that "peak coal looks like it's occurred in the Lower 48 (US states)", and the consensus position on coal ... <http://europe.theoildrum.com/node/2396> The Peak Coal Portfolio | Alternative Energy StocksLast week, we alerted you to a report from Germany's Energy Watch Group called "Coal: Resources and Future Production, €? which predicts peak coal by 2025 <http://www.altenergystocks.com/archives/2007/04/the_peak_coal_portfolio_1.html> Conserve Magazine » Peak Coal and Mountaintop RemovalApril 5, 2007. Peak Coal and Mountaintop Removal. Coal pile. Lucky for us: There may not be as much coal left as the industry has claimed. By Erik Curren ... <http://www.conservemag.com/2007/04/05/peak-oil-energy/peak-coal-and-mountaintop-removal/> Reserves to dry up as clean coal becomes viable - Environment ...NSW could run out of coal within 35 years, by which time any clean coal technology used to deal with greenhouse gases generated by the industry would only ... <http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/reserves-to-dry-up-as-clean-coal-becomes-viable/2007/04/09/1175971023057.html> Read this Factoid (from End Of Oil, Paul Roberts, Ch.11 'The Invisible Hand', chapter sample via google books: http://books.google.com/books?id=R8gaUYrd6x0C&pg=PA259&sig=qoz1-Vdtv1bu09olC4vtiU6dctA): "Coal is, in fact, so much cheaper than any other fuel - especially cleaner-burning gas - that most forecasts have U.S. coal consumption actually rising 25% between now (2004) and 2020, by which time the U.S. energy economy, ostensibly the most sophisticated in the world, will still be making *44%* of it's power from a coal-fired power sector whose core technology is over 100 years old" There goe the ecosphere anyway, and when the coal starts getting scarce, that 44% will have to start coming from already more expensive, and increasingly so, oil, or LNG produced by an exorbitantly expensive infrastructure that as yet doesn't even exist! So tell me... Why bash peak oil? Issue avoidance is the only rationale that come to mind. ...or maybe we can cover WHOLE DESERTS in solar cells, or the whole Monterey Bay with thin film contact transduction 'Wave Rams'. ...or your whole neighborhood with windmills constanly killing off whats left of birdlife in an increasingly barren land. Let's talk about 'Peak Everything', you know, 'sustainability' or does that boggle the economic mind to the point where it prevents rational discussion and just turns into a critique of critiques... tearing apart the most worthy of characters, to paraphrase Ben Franklin? <http://books.google.com/books?id=8E8Zk3ZZNoYC&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=executive+pay+ben+franklin+anti+federalist&source=web&ots=qnITVnyJPK&sig=TRfDP8QMk9OZhvRxDBxpaI8dlnc#PPA43,M1> Here's the list again, and note that just smallish downturns in *all of these issues* over some humanly conceivable period of time will have not so 'smallish' effect; * Population * Grain production (total and per capita) * Uranium production * Climate stability * Fresh water availability per capita * Arable land in agricultural production * Wild fish harvests * Yearly extraction of some metals and minerals (including copper, platinum, silver, gold, and zinc) Leigh
