Finally, stuff it all:

Wherever humans gather, there awaits tragedy.

Hungry or not, as deaths precursor, the wise will use the time allotted on earth to learn the true meaning of peace.

Shadow Minister: "The gas is used not for its calorific value, but for its hydrogen content."

Interesting - thanks. You googled this? I bet you did. A link to what you found would have been nice.

JulianC,

For my part, I think we are probably better off with the gas out of the ground. A country of 21M hoarding something that a country of 1.3B needs to prevent its citizens for dying off doesn't seem politically wise, particularly as there are alternatives we can make do with because of our small population. At least we will be able to make do provided we keep our population small.

JulianC: "one almost never hears about peak gas, which is just as worthy of being treated seriously"

I suspect most people associate "peak oil" with "peak hydrocarbon's", and that includes gas. They are used to LPG prices tracking oil prices fairly closely. What you say here will come as no surprise.

JulianC: "the world actually passed 'peak phosphorus' in 1988"

There are other interpretations of those figures which indicate we haven't hit the peak just yet: http://phosphorusfutures.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16&Itemid=30 The wild gyrations in the past 2 decades look to me like that were caused by Nauru mismanaging its phosphorus reserves, selling them far too cheaply.

It will however be a huge problem in the later half of this decade. My personal plan is to die of old age before it bites.

Agree with you Julian Cribb.
Taswegian, the government does not accept that oil depletion and indeed
energy depletion is a real problem.

Peak gas world wide is not all that further away.
It has been pointed out that rate of depletion of gas when it starts is
very much faster than that of oil.
Frankly I think they are mad allowing such long term contracts got gas.
Western Miming I think it was gave a 25 yr contract to China a few
years back at a fraction of the current price.

Gas demand is going to rise dramatically as oil depletes and becomes
more expensive. This will reduce the so called reserves to much
shorter time periods. You are dreaming if you are thinking more than
25 to 50 years.