Category Archives: Coal

External costs of coal: probably over $500 billion per year in USA

Posted on May 4, 2014 by

Paul R. Epstein, et al. 2011. Full cost accounting for the life cycle of coal in “Ecological Economics Reviews.” Robert Costanza, Karin Limburg & Ida Kubiszewski, Eds. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1219: 73–98. This paper tabulates a wide range of … Continue reading →

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Set the planet on fire: Burn underground coal to gasify it. Worse than Fracking.

Posted on February 13, 2014 by

Fire in the hole: After fracking comes coal. 13 February 2014 by Fred Pearce. NewScientist. Setting fire to coal underground could answer our energy prayers, or start an environmental disaster on a bigger scale than ever before. Without a way to … Continue reading →

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Peak fossil fuels means global warming less than projected

Posted on July 15, 2013 by

This Science article states we could emit CO2 at the same rate we are now for another 50 years before going over the 2 degrees Celsius level we need to avoid a runaway greenhouse.  Since we are at peak world fossil … Continue reading →

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Peak Coal already happened or likely soon, so worst IPCC scenarios may never happen

Posted on January 8, 2013 by

[ The good news is that The IPCC has greatly exaggerated the amount of coal reserves we actually have The scientists below find that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has greatly exaggerated coal reserves, so the IPCC scenario … Continue reading →

Posted in But not from climate change: Peak Fossil Fuels, Climate Change, CO2 and Methane, Coal, Global Warming, Peak Coal, Planetary Boundaries, Runaway Greenhouse | Tagged | Comments Off on Peak Coal already happened or likely soon, so worst IPCC scenarios may never happen

Coal: why it can’t easily substitute for oil

Posted on July 9, 2011 by

In a major 2009, 737 page landmark study of our energy predicament, the National Academy of Sciences proposes  that the only possible near-term solution to a substitute transportation fuel to replace gasoline is liquified coal.   Liquified coal is the only … Continue reading →

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