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David adopts an avowedly arbitrary definition of a sustainable burn rate: can a burn-rate be sustained for 1000 years? If yes, it is sustainable. That definition allow shim to relate the UK's coal reserves with a daily per person sustainable consumption rate --- there would be less than 1 kWh of electricity per person available from clean coal. But we consume 180 kWh/day/person, so clean coal is a stop gap --- it will not see our way of life go on for that long.
This relies pretty crucially on the definition of sustainability, which I think is wrong for the purpose. David adopts what one might call the Ise Shrine notion of sustainability. The Ise Shrine was first built in 4BC and has been rebuilt, identically, ever since then every 20 years. It was last rebuilt in 1993. This is "sustainability" as in keeping on and on doing the same thing. David is ISe-esque in choosing our ability to do the same thing - burn British coal - for a very long time to come.
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tonycurzonprice on 2009-09-11Many of you will have heard David MacKay interviewd this morning on Today - a good moment to pick up our group read again after a v.long summer break. We should aim to finish by Copenhagen.
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