A sliver of hope

Wired reports that “a new calculation of the world’s coal reserves is much lower than previous estimates. If validated, the new info could have a massive impact on the fate of the planet’s climate.”

According this calculation, the world has 662 billion tons of coal total, including all that we’ve already mined.  Previously, the best estimate was that we still had 850 billion tons of coal still left to be mined.

That’s a huge difference, clearly, and if it’s true, it could mean that the debate on “clean” coal is moot — there isn’t enough of it in the ground to make the development and deployment of pollution-scrubbing technologies worth the extraordinary cost.

And that might mean we can forget the folly and focus on energy-efficiency, renewables, and saving the planet.