The Coal Question; An Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of Our Coal Mines,

JEVONS (William Stanley)

Verlag:

Third Edition, revised, Edited by A. W. Flux, complete with two plates/charts, lii, 467pp., large octavo, a very good copy in original orange cloth, gilt lettered, London, Macmillan, 1906. * William Stanley Jevons (1835-1882), was one of the most important English economists of all time, standing alongside Adam Smith, Malthus, Ricardo, Mill, Marshall and Keynes. This is a major work on the subject of coal and its consumption. The present third and final edition is definitive since it incorporates the various revisions made since its first appearance in 1865. Jevons's painstaking considerations of the limits of growth and sustainability ensure that the book has retained its interest and relevance to our own time. "The possibility of Britain's industrial supremacy being threatened by the exhaustion of her coal supplies had been raised in the House of Commons. Vague statements had been subsequently made about the size of British coal reserves but no firmly based forecasts of the demand for and supply of coal had been undertaken. In the summer of 1864 Jevons decided that "the coming question" was that of coal. Jevons was one of the first economists to deal specifically with some of the problems presented by the exploitation of extractive resources and to identify the difficulties in which they might involve the early industrializing countries." New Palgrave, p.1012-3. The book's main theme was an exploration of the implications of Britain's reliance on coal. Given that coal was a finite, non-renewable energy resource, Jevons raised the question of sustainability. "Are we wise in allowing the commerce of this country to rise beyond the point at which we can long maintain it?" His central thesis was that the supremacy of Britain over global affairs was transitory, given the finite nature of coal as its primary energy resource. In propounding this thesis, Jevons covered a range of issues central to sustainability, including limits to growth, overpopulation, overshoot, energy return on energy input, taxation of energy resources, renewable energy alternatives, and resource peaking. Crucially, since the quantity of coal was limited, its access became more difficult with time and as the demand grew exponentially. Jevons also considered the feasibility of alternative energy sources, foreshadowing modern debates on the subject. Regarding wind and tidal forces, he explained that such sources of intermittent power could be made more useful if the energy were stored, for example by pumping water to a height for subsequent use as hydro power. He reviewed biomass, namely timber, and commented that forests covering all of the UK could not supply energy equal to the current coal production. He also mentioned possibilities for geothermal and solar power, pointing out that if these sources did become world-wide, the UK would lose its competitive advantages in global industry. Regarding electricity, Jevons also noted that hydroelectric power was feasible. Extraordinarily, Jevons never considered that the pollution from coal was a problem - or a reason to cut back on mining. He did, however, propose that the wealth it enabled should be used to righting social ills and to creating a more just society: "We must begin to allow that we can do today what we cannot so well do tomorrow. Reflection will show that we ought not to think of interfering with the free use of the material wealth which Providence has placed at our disposal, but that our duties wholly consist in the earnest and wise application of it. We may spend it on the one hand in increased luxury and ostentation and corruption, and we shall be blamed. We may spend it on the other hand in raising the social and moral condition of the people, and in reducing the burdens of future generations. Even if our successors be less happily placed than ourselves, they will not then blame us." (p.3). Jevons also campaigned against wasting natural resources: "The remaining natural sources of energy are the. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 25480

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Titel: The Coal Question; An Inquiry Concerning the...