A Climate Love Story
I read through this thinking it was a bit pessimistic, so the twist didn&#x27;t really hit me in the intended way.<p>Like aren&#x27;t we already projected to be at level population growth by 2100?<p>But it&#x27;s the weird fossil fuel cultism that gets me:<p>&gt; Besides the fact that we have never built any alternative energy infrastructure (dams, photovoltaics, turbines, nuclear) without extensive reliance on fossil fuels, it is not clear how non-renewable materials could be coaxed to maintain a renewable energy infrastructure for the long term.<p>What specific thing is it hard to do without fossil fuels?<p>Trucks? Steel? Concrete? Mining? Boats? Give me some details please as I feel you&#x27;re wrong but you&#x27;re being very coy about the details so I can&#x27;t tell you why you are wrong.<p>More importantly, put a figure on it, what percent of the total absolutely requires fossil fuels which are today, right now more expensive than renewable energy.<p>What price would renewables need to get to in order to build those apparently necessary fossil fuels from the air with green electricity? This kind of puts an upper limit on the price of avoiding this doom.<p>edit: he does in fact link to more in depth fossil fuel cultism:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;dothemath.ucsd.edu&#x2F;2022&#x2F;06&#x2F;shedding-our-fossil-fuel-suit&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;dothemath.ucsd.edu&#x2F;2022&#x2F;06&#x2F;shedding-our-fossil-fuel-...</a><p>Apparently heating things is the Achilles heel of renewables. Just not possible without fossil fuels.<p>I mean we can literally make fossil fuels with electricity. So that doesn&#x27;t seem a blocker anyway, but surely someone will figure out how to heat things with electricity? I mean there must be some way to work around the fact that putting too much electricity through metal will melt it? And how are we going to melt metal if the metal things we build to melt the metal also melt when we put electricity through them. It&#x27;s a conundrum, but surely some genius will solve it.<p>Also, I didn&#x27;t realise how correct I was to refer to this as cult-like:<p>&gt; That leaves the question: if most of what we praise about ourselves is not so much us but our fossil fuel suit (we do look good in it, don’t we?), then what’s left when our empire loses its cladding? Just how feeble, pathetic, and dull are we, under that thick and powerful shroud?<p>He literally thinks we can&#x27;t invent new things without fossil fuels. That&#x27;s a very weird belief.