Comments on: The Age of Wisdom? http://climateinc.org/2009/09/the-age-of-wisdom/ The Business of Stopping Climate Change Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:33:20 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Rhea http://climateinc.org/2009/09/the-age-of-wisdom/comment-page-1/#comment-168 Rhea Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:07:55 +0000 http://climateinc.org/?p=288#comment-168 Great article. I am going to read "The Long Emergency" and see "The Age of Stupid" as soon as Netflix gets it. Oh, wait a minute. Isn't Netflix gonna die, too, with the coming of peak oil? The corner video store rises again. Great article. I am going to read “The Long Emergency” and see “The Age of Stupid” as soon as Netflix gets it. Oh, wait a minute. Isn’t Netflix gonna die, too, with the coming of peak oil? The corner video store rises again.

]]> By: David Levy http://climateinc.org/2009/09/the-age-of-wisdom/comment-page-1/#comment-79 David Levy Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:03:57 +0000 http://climateinc.org/?p=288#comment-79 thanks for your comment, I read estimates of up to 100 years at current consumption rates for coal - I was being conservative. Rates might decline with a price on carbon. The bigger point is that oil prices are increasingly decoupled from power prices, and peak oil, by itself, will not shock us into a new renewable age. As with oil, coal won't just run out one day - if coal prices don't plummet, there will be new investments in smaller, perhaps more expensive fields even if the life of the investment is only 20-30 years. thanks for your comment,
I read estimates of up to 100 years at current consumption rates for coal – I was being conservative. Rates might decline with a price on carbon. The bigger point is that oil prices are increasingly decoupled from power prices, and peak oil, by itself, will not shock us into a new renewable age. As with oil, coal won’t just run out one day – if coal prices don’t plummet, there will be new investments in smaller, perhaps more expensive fields even if the life of the investment is only 20-30 years.

]]> By: Seer http://climateinc.org/2009/09/the-age-of-wisdom/comment-page-1/#comment-78 Seer Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:11:13 +0000 http://climateinc.org/?p=288#comment-78 "There is enough cheap coal for fifty years at least, and nuclear power is expensive but stable in price." That's an incompletely worded statement. You need to define the rate of usage. I'm assuming that you mean at the current rate of use, without any increase (growth in consumption levels). Clearly, adding any additional growth to current extraction/consumption rates (such as would happen by increased EVs) would decrease this time horizon. But suppose that 50 years was the lifespan, large-scale investment for an infrastructure whose expected lifespan is 50 years is pretty hard to imagine. Please refer to Dr. Albert Bartlett's presentation "Arithmetic, Population and Energy" (www.guba.com/watch/3000053112/Arithmetic-Population-Energy). “There is enough cheap coal for fifty years at least, and nuclear power is expensive but stable in price.”

That’s an incompletely worded statement. You need to define the rate of usage. I’m assuming that you mean at the current rate of use, without any increase (growth in consumption levels). Clearly, adding any additional growth to current extraction/consumption rates (such as would happen by increased EVs) would decrease this time horizon. But suppose that 50 years was the lifespan, large-scale investment for an infrastructure whose expected lifespan is 50 years is pretty hard to imagine.

Please refer to Dr. Albert Bartlett’s presentation “Arithmetic, Population and Energy” (www.guba.com/watch/3000053112/Arithmetic-Population-Energy).

]]>