I too personally wish the coal burning steam locomotive was still ubiquitous. But there is a problem afoot, and it may have more to do with the fact that there re twice as many of us now as there were in 1955.
actually i've heard at current rate of depletion it's more like a 400 year reserve.
This particular quote kind of grabs. It is possibly a quote from a Senate report to a Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. The problem with it is, of course, "at current rate of depletion". I won't go into the math, but if you look at current growth rates, and the fact that you simply cannot get 100% of the coal out of the ground, and do the math, the 500 year figure presented to that committee comes down to between 72 and 94 years.
Source - a particularly engaging address by Dr.Albert Bartlett, Arithmetic, Population and Energy.
