Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:22:39.413Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Expert predictions of the lifetimes of non-renewable resources

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

Albert A. Bartlett
Albert A. Bartlett*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A. 80309-0390
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The editor of this journal recently deplored the inability of members of the government to make correct use of the simple mathematics that they encounter in their various capacities. The purpose of this article is to call attention to a common mathematical failing of those who are “authorities” in questions such as the life expectancies of non-renewable resources. My particular example comes from Britain, although failures such as this one are common among “experts” in the U.S.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 78 , Issue 482 , July 1994 , pp. 127 - 129
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. MacKinnon, N., Editorial, Gazette 76, 207 (1992).Google Scholar
2. “Rubbishing economic growth: dark Greens”, The Economist, 324, No. 7776, 99, September 12, 1992.Google Scholar
3. Bartlett, A.A., “Forgotten fundamentals of the energy crisis” American Journal of Physics, 46, No.9, 876–888, September 1978.Google Scholar
4. Hubbert, M.K., “Survey of world energy resources”, Canadian Mining and Metallurgical Bulletin, 66, No. 735, 37–53, July 1973; and “Measurement of energy resources”, Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 101,16–30, March 1979.Google Scholar