| The Coal Question Contributor(s): Jevons, William Stanley (Author) |
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ISBN: 1545239258 ISBN-13: 9781545239254 Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform OUR PRICE: $10.45 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 2017 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Political Science | Political Economy |
| Physical Information: 0.45" H x 5.98" W x 9.02" (0.64 lbs) 214 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The Coal Question; An Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of Our Coal Mines (1865) was a book by economist William Stanley Jevons that explored 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," he asked rhetorically, "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 the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland over global affairs was transitory, given the finite nature of 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 (EROEI), taxation of energy resources, renewable energy alternatives, and resource peaking-a subject widely discussed today under the rubric of peak oil. |