nickers

Wow. How little people seem to know about the supplies of oil and gas in this country (and the world)!
In 1923 a survey was carried out by the world's oil companies and they were in a real state of panic. Most of their scientists believed that the Earth had roughly thirty-five to forty years worth of crude oil in it. Here we are some forty years beyond that "red-line", and still there are millions of gallons of oil being pumped from below ground. Perhaps it is magical oil, or it could be fairy oil, or even fairy liquid! Either way it's still coming out of the ground.
Further, the technology used in finding oil is now so good that one of the "secrets" of the oil industry is that there is plenty of oil left in the ground. Enough to supply the planet (at current demand) for at least another seventy-five years. This in addition to the fact that the ability to get oil out the ground is now four times better than it was ten years ago... just think how much better it will be in ten years time - meaning the time we have left will be extended that little bit more.
The other interesting fact is that the processes now exist to take standard coal dug from the ground and turn it into a liquid that can be burned by any combustion based engine (i.e. your car) just like ordinary petroleum. The best bit of this fact is that the estimates are that there are over two-hundred and seventy years worth of coal in the ground. For those of you reading this and getting all upset at the idea that burning all this coal will contribute to global warming (if you believe it) there is a fantastic fact - just for you... Technology has been invented, for some ten years now, that allows you to burn coal in a furnace or similar and then collect all of the fumes, treat them, and release nothing but clean air. All of the collected pollutants are re-used and utilised elsewhere for other processes. So you can now be confident that coal is no longer a nasty thing. Oh, and before I forget coal mines produce lots and lots of gas (if you don't believe me go and look at the mine shaft of a filled-in mine. You'll notice huge metal vents that allow methane to escape into the air. This can be burned by your standard gas cooker, or water heater/boiler. As it currently just escapes, there would be nothing to stop a company from putting a big pipe onto this vent and pumping it to homes all over the UK.
So, here's a question: The UK has loads of old coal mines that are not used, so what is wrong with opening them up, creating jobs and using the fuel they provide and telling the Europeans where to go with their gas!?!? Doing this would create jobs, boost the economy and create wealth for the people of the nation... what a good and sensible idea - it's just a shame that no politician in his right mind will take it on board for that reason alone. (by the way, I'm not blowing my own trumpet by suggesting that it's a good idea, merely stating that there aren't any politicians in power at the moment that has ever implemented a plan of action that follows the dictats of comon sense).

To just round up on the idea of global warming... History and the archaeological record teaches us that the world should be at least ten degrees warmer than it presently is. We are still in the final stages of an ice age, hence the fact that we have ice caps at the poles of the planet. So when they finally dissapear the planet will have returned to its natural state - which is nothing to get upset about. Although, it might mean the end of the humble penguin or polar bear, you have to remember that the wolly mamoth and sabre-toothed tiger also died out when the zenith of the ice age passed. It's called natural selection.
However, if you are really concerned about the idea of global warming, then start writting to your local MP (or any MP for that matter) and demand that they stop spending so much on military development of nuclear weapons and spend on cleaner technology. If the planet took one days worth of military spending it could feed the world for three years - it could also use that money and clean up the planet in less than a year too! Food for thought.

Britannist

A most interesting read, Nickers.

Your estimate of the amount of coal left in the world is the same as that of a Professor recently interviewed on the same subject by James Whale on TalkSport radio a few weeks ago.

Is there anyone reading this who noticed, as I did, that last week's ITV 1 news completely ignored the case against the global warming theory in its live coverage from the Antarctic?

nickers

I'm quite amused that there isn't just me banging on about the figures... I've never listened to talksport radio (I prefer my mp3 player - it has less morons on it), although I'm sure that it would have been a good programme to have listened to.
I also managed to completely miss the ITV broadcast too. Although their ignorance of the arguments contrary to the theory we are being made to fear doesn't surprise me.
I don't know if you have noticed Britannist (or if anyone else has noticed for that matter), that news agencies all over the world are getting their news from the same tired sources these days. No one actually does any real journalistic research anymore.
It's rather like news isn't news any more, more a series of stories dreamed up somewhere and broadcast live for us to swallow. I stopped watching or believing anything in "the news" in August of 2006 after the BBC and others were responsible for putting out all of the lies about the "terrorist plot to blow up jet-planes leaving Britain"
The simple fact was that to blow up an aircraft of the size of a 747-400 (or similar) would have required significant quantities of liquid explosives. The one fact that the Beeb and ITV, etc all "forgot" to mention was that to make the explosives you have to have significant quantities. By significant I mean a lot more than a couple of pints, which would be noticed when you carry it on board in your now heavy hand luggage. Then you have to mix these liquids whilst in the air (without being noticed by one of the air marshals on the flight or the flight crew). Assuming you get this far you now hit your dilema -- the liquid you just mixed now has to be stored below freezing for more than an hour for it to crystalise and become explosive. Would it be this point that you think "******! I had to check the freezer into the cargo hold because it was too big to carry into the cabin" or would you ask a stewardess to freeze a liquid for you for about an hour and hope that she doesn't think it suspicious? Further to this, the news agencies forgot to mention that the terrorists caught on a dry run were comprised of people who couldn't board an international flight (as was claimed) because they didn't have passports. Yet the news on any channel claimed that these people had been caught and were guilty, all this despite the fact that they are innocent until proven, and none of the "trials" has ever been covered in any mainstream news that I am aware of. Seems to me as if someone from a central source was giving the information to be read out in a pre-planned event. Perhaps it was to divert attention from the fact that the Deputy PM had been caught with his pants down (as so many of his colleagues do), or simply to keep the idea of fear alive thus keeping us under thumb.
Even three of the big news agencies in the United States of America (ABC, CNN, and FOX) merged their news gathering centres into a single office building "to pool resources". This in itself is incredibly stupid in the world of business, to let your opponents know what you are up to and how you are getting things done would just be disastrous. Imagine if Microsoft and Apple suddenly merged their research and development departments... seperate companies, doing similar things, fighting for the same market share, then have to compete from the same office... doesn't make sense to me.
Don't take my word for any of this though - DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH. Find out for yourself the gross injustices and lies being forced upon us all by the powers that be.
I'm one of the little people and if I managed to find this out all on my own, then someone in a position to do something should really be able to find things out.

Anyway, I digress from the topic at hand... Global warming is not definite. We should all be more careful about the planet and its resources though. A great aboriginal American once said "Only after the last tree has been cut down, only after the last fish has been eaten, after the last river has dried up; only then will you realise that you can't eat money" (or words to that effect). Quite powerful considering most of us lust after money and care nothing to the world around us. If we pay a little more attention to the world and really look at how it works we could perhaps be definite about the idea of global warming - but I doubt it. The world is too complex and we are too naive for us to understand the earth and how it works just yet.

Who knows - time will tell.