Human ingenuity beats the neo-Malthusians yet again
<p>OK, this is big news.  A research team has <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/323/5922/1680">worked out a way to nearly triple the efficiency of the  </a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer-Tropsch">Fischer-Tropsch process</a>. </p>
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<p>This means cheap synthetic hydrocarbons from coal are on the horizon.  It probably sinks shale oil and biofuels for good &#8211; which is a good thing, as biofuel demand has been driving food prices higher. Potentially, it could make the U.S. &#8211; which has huge coal reserves &#8211; independent of foreign oil sources for the forseeable future.</p>
<p>Now watch for it: I [predict that the so-called &#8220;environmental movement&#8221; will scream in horror at this prospect, and we will learn yet again that they are mostly about enforcing eco-puritan poverty on us all rather than doing anything actually useful about actual ecological problems.</p>
