Coal and all that
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
We had a truly brilliant talk from Chris Vernon, editor of Oil Drum Europe, on Wednesday 9 July. It gave us a clear and easy-to-follow round-up of the global position on coal, oil, gas, CO2 consequences, and what this implies for all of us. The real take-home message is that all our personal actions and campaigning should be aimed at things which will cause fossil fuels to be left in the ground. Some of the detail covered is as follows;
- Current oil prices are not unexpected, the price curve since 2001 is consistent with a steady 30% annual increase. The lack of spare production capacity means that supply cannot just rise in response to demand to keep prices level. The volume of oil exported from oil producing countries, which is the only amount that matters in terms of market forces and price, has decreased by 3.2%
- If we want to have any hope of a livable climate with thriving ecosystems, then coal has to stay in the ground. This means we urgently have to develop electricity from alternative sources, and we have to develop ways of depending on less energy. We need to do this quickly, as oil and gas won’t last forever. What oil and gas we have left needs to be used wisely for building the new infrastructure that our lives will depend on.
- Carbon capture and sequestration (so-called ‘clean coal’) is a false promise. It takes 30% more energy to produce electricity using CC and S, and no-one has made it work for coal yet anyway. If power stations are built for coal, then the coal will get burnt, the CC and S is highly unlikely to work or be used, and we’ll have CO2 concentrations heading for 580 parts per million (we need to be at 350 ppm or less).
- Is nuclear the answer? Well even if we could immediately start building all the nuclear power stations we need, this would not produce any power before 2020. We’ll be experiencing severe energy shortages well before then unless we develop ways of needing less, ways of wasting less, and generation from wind, sun and tides.
This article has been filed under News.