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53 comments on I guess this is discourse...? (or Levitt of Freakonomics on today's Maass piece)

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Glenn on August 21, 2005 - 5:45pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Remember that even the transition from coal to oil was fraught with social upheaval - anyone remember what happened to all those mining towns. And that was a "good transition".
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Heading Out on August 21, 2005 - 8:19pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
And a lot of those towns never recovered, but now have a bitter remembrance of mining, just as the time approaches when we might need them again.
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Anonymous (not verified) on August 21, 2005 - 11:49pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
There was never a "transition from coal to oil". Oil was just added to coal. The world produces and consumes today more coal than ever. But there are lots of depleted coal mines around. Most of the abandoned mines simply run out of coal. The depletion shows as rising costs and decreasing profitability as the coal becomes more and more difficult to mine. That is why it appears that these mines were abandoned for economic reasons, not for lack of coal.

Some of the abandoned coal mines can be reopened but the they cannot never again reach their highest production levels.

The real transition will be a transition to lower energy consumption.

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Glenn on August 22, 2005 - 4:00am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
agreed, I was just commenting that all transitions have some pain, even ones that achieve a greater efficiency over the long run. What areas will be the peak oil equivalent of the abandoned mining towns? Probably most of the Southwest and most areas of suburban sprawl...It will not be a smooth transition.
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53 comments on I guess this is discourse...? (or Levitt of Freakonomics on today's Maass piece)

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