Peak Uncertainty, When Will We Run Out Of Fossil Fuels?
Thursday, August 26, 2010 - 21:49
in Earth & Climate
A couple of weeks ago I read somewhere that we have got enough coal left for over 200 years. So despite the greenhouse gas emissions that it entails, we needn't worry about our immediate energy supply.1 Coal can be converted to oil in the Fischer-Tropsch process, securing even oil for the next decades.2 Good news, I thought, then there is more time to develop and switch to renewables, without jeopardizing the economy nor – more crucially – the lives of the people that depend on it.Yet then the inquisitive merry-go-round in my brain got going: how did they get that number? For over 200 years of coal? Is this a lower bound? An upper bound? What if the coal price rises? read more