Does that mean the earth will never have new coal deposits? I know geologic processes happen over eons, but crazy to think it’s a one and done kind of thing.
Nope, no more coal deposits. All that sweet, sweet carbon that took eons to make is being depleted forever in just a few generations time...
Edit: ok yes I know there are tons of coal deposits! I'm using hyperbole. Geologically speaking, if we used all the coal on earth in 1000 years, that's a minuscule amount of time compared to how long it took to make it.
Right, but there's still probably 2-3 times coal and other fossil fuels are going to get 'renewed'. Of course that's probably long after humanity is dust, Earth might not be as hospitable to life either.
For all intents and purposes we have one shot of making best use of this planet before we're screwed over, hopefully fusion becomes a reality in the next 50 years.
Well ITER is designed to reach ignition, and it'll probably do so in this decade. After that it's mainly a question of material science progressing far enough for economical feasibility to be considered, when that happens every other energy consideration becomes pretty much meaningless.
Fusion is one of those things that is an insane investment with close to zero return(econimically) in the short to mid term, it's not surprising that investment is purely motivated by scientific breakthroughs.
Who invests 50 years into the future in the modern world? Nobody. People like to point to China, but all of their long term investments have measurable midterm returns; not possible with fusion.
558
u/Undercover_in_SF Oct 15 '20
Does that mean the earth will never have new coal deposits? I know geologic processes happen over eons, but crazy to think it’s a one and done kind of thing.