I agree coal will outlast people.
I have had a scroll of the long winded post about the sanctity of coal mining, and how you take the stance of faux experts.
What life experiences or any other experiences have you had to justify your comment.
Neither corporates or politicians have any sensible answers to how long the human will survive, as they only live for the next election, or the next annual profit report.
I feel that you are frustrated reporters, and still wet behind the ears.

Sarah, you are probably right.
If we keep producing CO2 at the present accelerated rate we will have Armageddon upon us before we know it, and I am not talking about the Armageddon preached by the religious right. Sooner, rather than later, the earth is going to run out of resources, the most important of which is a clean atmosphere, not to overlook the importance of water, or the soil in which to grow food for the exponetially increasing population.

Twelve years ago, atmospheric polution in China was pretty awful. I am sure the visitors to Beijing next year will go home with an even better idea of what we should expect in the future. Hopefully some of the climate change sceptics will be amongst them.

The authors seem not to have read the Richard Heinberg article recently in OLO arguing that globally, coal production could peak by 2025 albeit with a slow decline thereafter. As with natural gas Australia's reserves may last longer than the rest of the world. However Australia with 0.3% of the world's population produces about half a billion tonnes annually of domestically used brown and black coal plus black coal exports. I think you'll find that contributes more like 6% of global fossil carbon emissions. Little Australia is punching well above its weight in transforming the global atmosphere.

Even if you don't think global warming is real you might think about what will replace coal when it eventually runs out or becomes uneconomic. If clean coal worked it would deplete the resource about twice as fast. Note that even clean coal enthusiasts are saying 'give us 20 years', code for 'try something else'.

The correct thing for Australia is to join efforts to slowly divert primary energy generation from coal by means of carbon caps or taxes. That could not only slow emissions but conserve coal reserves for centuries while building up clean generation. Otherwise we are speeding towards a dead end.

As I read your article I'm wondering if you tried this hard to save the asbestos industry too? I find it rather offensive that parents who care about the future for their children are lumped together with herds of alarmists, loudmouth greenies and green hysterics. Are you "peddling a myth" that blue collar workers aren't middle class - most of the people I know who work in the mines earn far more money than my family does or any of the people I've met who work for environment organisations ... many of whom are volunteers. Opening no new coalmines is different to closing coalmines and sacking people - opening no new coalmines gives us breathing space to lower emissions while still working on new technologies. You say that "the starting point of course is that domestic action will have no impact on global climate realities" - our emissions are the same as France and Italy combined ... should they be exempt from action ... as well as all other countries smaller than China?

Hilarious to read the neoliberal-dominated unions (who fund 'The New City' and this articles authors) posing as class warriors AND economic rationalists at the same time; Howard has set new standards in bend-and-spread-em contortions to please the powerful, but these fellow spinners are up to his standard for sure. Note the "its not my responsibility" defence on coal consumption and export, RightThinkers really are the Deadbeat Dads of Oz society.

Immature children sums it up really!
I do not think the coal mining industry needs a cheer squad! They have been doing very well on their own thank you buying influence in the circles of power at State and Federal levels.
While we can all argue the semantics of issues relating to more or less coal mining or burying the waste products to give a green ting the basic science and facts of our home seems to be little understood.
- Coal, for that matter oil and gas are finite
- Our planet today exists in its current state due to natural process which locked up large amounts of carbon in stable forms and geological formations. (Coal, oil and natural gas.)
- We are currently burning each day, fossil fuels that have taken the earth systems the equivalent of 400 years to form
- We as a race (and every other living thing) are all part of the earths biosphere dependant on it for life.
- Our planet is solar powered, without the sun and even having all fossil fuels at our disposal to burn the planet would last a matter of days before we all froze to death.

We as a species have the abilities to delude our thinking that the facts and the science of our planet do not apply to us where in fact they do. The discovery of these buried energy sources seems to have blinded out thinking and reasoning giving us the abilities to stretch the biospheres production of food to support our population increases to a level never seen before.
The talk of jobs, more or less coal or who will benefit from digging it out of the ground, I fear in just a matter of decades will be so immaterial.
This artile falls into the category of immature children playing with fire in a tinder dry eucalypt forest on a hot summer’s day. History will record what happened.