Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The World is Running Out of Coal Too

There is a very pressing need to look at clean energy beyond the arguments of global warming etc - after startling predictions by some scientists in the past that the world's oil supplies had peaked, there is a suggestion now that coal supplies may also peak by 2035: http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2742/81/ This means that by this time, more than half of the world's cupplies of coal would have been used up. So where are we going from there on? My feeling is that the countries that begin early and prepare themselves to avoid using fossil fuels will be the best placed to take advantage of this when supplies of coal and oil have peaked. As the quantities of these fossil fuels reduce, extracting what remains of them will become even more expensive. And those nations that have learned to live without these filthy fuels, will, again, be ready to go ahead while everyone else flounders.

The Scandinavians are the furthest ahead on this and Brazil is also working hard to get there. Israel has several superb new technologies that could make a difference wherever they are employed. And developing nations like China, Brazil and India all have plans though there is no saying how fast or how well they would work on these. Hopefully, in the spirit of competition, the world's nations will move fast ahead to try and wean themselves off this filth and stave some suffering off by going green. The one nation that could be an 800 ton (not pound) gorilla, the USA, is still undecided about this - I hope they decide to pursie this soon. No other nation on earth has a stronger technological base from which to work towards showing fossil fuels the fist.

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