[JEMASCOLA]

This might be a really stupid question, but it's something I've been thinking about the last several years. It's not directly related to Peak Oil, but it's something related to the environment and our consumption of resources.

Anyway, the material used for writing in pencils is graphite, right? Well, I think I might already know the answer to this, but is graphite renewable in some way?

Secondly, if graphite is limited, in availability, what would/will happen as more and more people use it and put it on paper and is never erased and remains that way for decades, centuries, etc.?

And finally, another question is what about when we erase pencil markings from paper and either brush them off on the floor or in the trash? Will the erased graphite somehow work its way back into the environment and eventually be usable and mine-able for us to use as pencil markings?

If graphite is somehow not renewable, what would be a better way to make markings on paper? I also think that even if there is a more renewable way to write, there's still material marked on paper that might never be erased, and even though it might take a long time, we will slowly but surely be using up the resources.

Also, I found this site that seems to steer in the direction of what I'm talking about:

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:TFRQnP-eFQ0J:www.earthsciencescanada.com/where/results/190.doc+graphite+pencils+renewable&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

I've tried Googling things about pencils and graphite usage, but this is the only thing so far I've found about it.

These are just some things I've been wondering and thinking about. Any replies would be appreciated. Thanks.

[kpeavey]

There is nothing stupid about questioning the fundamentals of civilization.


The future of print in a reduced complexity society


Charcoal is another common writing instrument and can be produced with simple technology.

Paper, on the other hand, has moved from a cottage industry to a super scale industrial product. The tools and knowledge required to produce it on a local scale have almost completely been lost to progress. Paper can be expected to become a rare commodity.

Go back a few centuries to the days of the Gutenberg press. The development of the device and its subsequent use demanded a vast expansion in paper production to feed the machines. Paper was one of the first goods to be mass produced. Along with mass production of paper and high volume printing came an expansion of literacy as more people had something to read. Politics changed as ideas could be communicated to the masses. Language and spelling was standardized. Indoor lighting was the next great demand, in order that people could read indoors or at night, so whale oil became an important resource. As whales were overhunted, an alternative was found in oil. The original best use for petroleum was for lighting. Thomas Edison changed all that with the incandescent light bulb and the creation of the electrical grid. Finally, computers came along, bringing a new paradigm of data storage and communications.

Resource depletion will eventually result in the breakdown of the electrical grid. When it goes, computers are useless, light bulbs don't work, and industrial production of paper will grind to a halt. There is no whale oil. Paper production as a cottage industry will take years to redevelop. Printing presses are few and far between. We will reexperience the Dark Ages and another Renaissance when the paper disappears and is reinvented.

[deMolay]

There are very few, true graphite mines in N. America. Graphite is being used more and more to replace steel. Example the new Boeing Dream Liner. Interesting.

[mos6507]

This might be one case where the "paperless office" of digital documents would be more sustainable.

[anador]

Alabama and other parts of the gulf and texas have very large graphite deposits and it is there mined as an industrial lubricant.

We are in no danger of exhausting our supply of graphite industrially not to mention for writing.

Compressed charcoal is suitable for pencil lead and can be processed to produced a dense pencil graphite.

http://minerals.usgs.gov/ds/2005/140/graphite.pdf

This is a usgs minerals tearsheet, it shows us production of graphite, and although we also import alot of graphite, we produce quite a bit too.

The import is not indicative of limited domestic supply, but rather the reduced price associated with the purchase of foreign graphite.

[Tanada]

Graphite is nothing more than fairly pure amorphous carbon, most of that consumed today is manufactured, not mined. Regular coal, petroleum coke and charcoal/biochar can all be used to supply the carbon, the rest of the process is heating and compressing to drive off the non-carbon impurities.

They have been doing this for decades to make the graphite anodes for use in electric arc furnaces, amongst other things like graphite brushes in electric motors and generators.

[Serial_Worrier]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'T')his might be one case where the "paperless office" of digital documents would be more sustainable.