Saturday 20 June 2009

Don't rely on coal to solve peak oil problem

Peak oil is going to have major effects on the global economy but here's a little mentioned aspect to think about. It may make climate change arrive faster and cause it to be even more serious. You might ask, how so? You might wonder how having less oil to use will increase greenhouse gas emissions. Well, as some know, many of the movers and shakers, and the experts they rely on, are functionally barking mad. Their response to oil becoming harder to obtain and going upwards in price to infinity and beyond SHOULD be to realise that it will increasingly make all forms of clean, renewable energy far more affordable. Knowing this is going to happen they SHOULD start planning renewable energy projects at all scales in the certain knowledge that by the time they get built they'll probably be the best and most economic option anyway! Instead, unless political pressure on the aforementioned useless and dangerous movers and shakers mounts, they will probably plan to substitute oil with coal. Just one of the problems with coal is that the carbon it is made of holds less energy per atom than the carbon in oil or gas so to generate the same amount of energy from coal will put more CO2 into the atmosphere thus increasing the onset of climate change. QED.

Here's a link to an article on this subject. please click for article


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