John Denker wrote:
> The best part, he says, is that you would only
> need about 15 volcanoes, if you set them off at
> intervals, one every three years. That's because
> in 50 years or so, if present
> trends continue, we will have used up all the fossil carbon
> fuels, and the CO2 problem will have gone away on its
In 50 years we will probably have used up most of the oil, but then, if
nothing else is available, we will switch to coal, of which there is
enough to last a few hundred years. Carbon-wise, coal is even worse than
oil.
Actually there's some evidence this is already happening: carbon
emissions intensity (carbon emitted per unit of GDP) bottomed out around
the year 2002, after a decline of essentially forever, and is trending
back upward, though slowly. See