Finite Mineral Fuels

I'd like to offer some reframing on the issues of global energy production. This blog will simply define & offer some small discussion of the concept of 'finite mineral fuels'.

I tend to think it's more useful to think of petroleum, coal, uranium, & even natural gas as finite mineral fuels. (While realizing that natural gas is not technically a mineral.)

These finite mineral fuels are just that -- finite. Limited. Non-renewable. Once dug out of the ground & burned, they are gone. & those that are biogenically sourced (coal, petroleum, & natural gas) are never to be replaced in our lifetimes.

But even uranium is a finite mineral fuel. While we can, theoretically, continue to mine uranium from other parts of our solar system, we are many decades from that being a practical solution to our appetite for energy.

Many people (& more every day) are familiarizing themselves with the concept of peak oil, the idea that petroleum products are a finite resource with a rather predictable pattern of extraction. We might want to start thinking of 'peak natural gas', 'peak uranium', yes, even 'peak coal'. Or we might want to think of them all as simply finite mineral fuels.