WORLD’S COAL SUPPLY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 2 September 1924, Page 7

WORLD’S COAL SUPPLY.

ENOUGH FOR ONLY 450 YEARS IN ENGLAND. At the first session of the World Power Conference at Wembley, Sir Richard Redmayne, in a survey of the coal resources of the world, compared the position- of Great Britain with respect to other countries. Referring to the eventual exhaustion of the world’s coal resources’, Sir Richard said that these resources would probably prove but one stage in the chain of events , making for evolution, but that it would be an important stage no one could deny. Though man had been using coal for 200 years it was only within the past few decades that its use for industrial purposes had developed. The world production of coal, and consequently its consumption, more than doubled in the twenty years immediatelv preceding the Great AVar. At the Toronto Geological Congress in 1913 it was estimated that the world’s supplies of fossil fuel would, at the then rate of consumption, suffice for 6000 years. At the present rate of consumption it was most likely that the supply would not last for more than 1500 or 2000 years. When this stage had been reached, he added, it would be very interesting to reflect that the period of the intensive use of coal would have constituted only about one per cent, of the period man had been on earth. “But Ido not think we need be unduly pessimistic,” he continued, “as it may well be that substitutes will have been found for coal in the course of .time.”

In respect of the duration of supplies on the present basis of production American resources would' outlast all other countries, for her resources would probably suffice for 2000 years. Great Britain’s coal life, on the 6ther hand, would not exceed at most 600 years; in fact, it was doubtful if it would last for more than 450 years. Although the curve of production of coal was rising, he believed that the maximum would soon be reached, and there would be a drop. Output in Great Britain would probably not exceed two hundred million tons a year. The lengthening of the coal epoch could only be brought about by the more economic use of that fuel, he continued. Speaking of oil, he said that in 25 years probably America would not produce any oil at all from liquid sources, “but,” he added, “the amount of oils she has in oil shales is enormous.”