Re: Sustainable UK population

In message <1152260213.738982.30300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, nichughes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes
Toby Kelsey wrote:

Given Peak Oil, chronic overfishing, and degrading soil; fossil-fuel farming and
fishing will go and the UK (without much to export and high transport costs)

Oil is not the only fossil fuel, coal reserves are a lot more
substantial. Coal is less convenient for many purposes but all this
really does is alter the cost of energy because you need slightly more
complex machines to process the fuel and release it.

And give off the worst case CO2 per delivered kWh.


Given the likely timescales for the exhaustion of all fossil fuels

But it's not about the last drop of oil coming out of the ground - rather about rapid fluctuations and rises in price.


(well over a century away IIRC) you are trying to predict the actions
of a society with technology which we cannot currently predict.

Indeed, but it still seems appropriate to consider the consequences and plan now, if only so that the most appropriate technologies can be developed.


For all
we know they might have ultra-dense farms of algae, or free-floating
saltwater aquaponics. Some of these potential agricultural technologies
are - in principle - sufficiently productive both to feed the current
population and to generate a surplus that can be converted to fuel.

Do tell !

In particular tell us why they aren't being applied right now.


Cheers, J/.
--
John Beardmore
.

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