"saving the whales" (in the 19th Century)
A cool little letter to the editor of the WSJ from a PhD geologist, Paul Gilmour-- detailing something economists talk about on the subject of natural resources and market responses...
Between 1848 and 1851, a Scottish chemist named James Young recovered petroleum from coal, which occurred in England and when that source was exhausted, went on to recover oil in Scotland, initially from coal similar to that previously exploited and, latterly, from oil shale that occurs in the Midland Valley. Oil was recovered and treated in plants built near the town of Bathgate, located between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
In 1852, Young patented certain techniques, some of which, without his permission, were used by refiners in the U.S. Young challenged the unauthorized use of his patented technology and his claims were upheld in U.S. courts. He then traveled to Pennsylvania to collect royalties. In the event, Young -- known to friends as "Paraffin" (the British equivalent of kerosene) created what, in the words of one reference, "became the first truly commercial oil-works in the world."
Overfishing of whales and decreasing supply of whale oil caused the major fuel used in oil lamps to rise very rapidly and this development created the market Young sought to satisfy. In short, if variants of petroleum had not been discovered and developed, whales almost certainly would have gone the way of the woolly mammoth, sabre-toothed tiger and dodo bird: They would be extinct.
The next time someone thinks about saving whales or reflects on the iniquities of "big oil," I hope he or she will pause to offer a prayer to James Young and those who followed in his footsteps and thereby helped preserve the magnificent "Leviathans of the Deep."
posted by Eric Schansberg @ 4:33 PM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
So what saved the whales wasn't a realization that they were precious and worth saving ("there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein"), what saved them was a new technology rendering the whale hunting industry obsolete.
Recently, I saw an interesting Sierra Club presentation. The speaker described the nasty air pollution problem that many American cities suffered from until about 1950, due to the use of coal to heat homes. Louisville had particularly bad air pollution; the city was often covered by black smog so dense a person couldn't see more than two or three blocks. Many efforts were made to clean the air. These consisted of efforts to require cleaner grades of coal, or to mandate use of more efficient and cleaner coal burners. But the coal interests stymied these consistently. (Their tactics ranged from dilatory calls for studies, to having clean-air crusaders roughed up by goons.) Finally, the problem came to an end. Not because efforts against coal finally succeeded, but simply because natural gas became available for home heating.
This made me realize that our reliance as petroleum as a motor fuel will not end unless and until there is a technological breakthrough rendering petroleum obsolete. I hope this happens soon, because there are signs that the rate of petroleum production is nearing its peak, and because we already import two-thirds of our oil—making us vulnerable to our enemies in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Tech advance-- along with the price increase (given reduced supply and increased demand).
It's difficult to tell which is chicken and egg-- as in the current situation.
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