The Hydrocarbon Era’s Spectacular End
Sorry but this is wishful thinking to say the least.<p>Oil, coal and gas not only are cheap, reliable, plentiful and versatile materials we have learned to turn into an excellent source for transportation, they are also used for many other things we take for granted. Probably 80% of the stuff we surround ourselves with is made of oil-based products some way or another.<p>I happen to be involved with a group that is trying to find alternatives to ex. plastic but it&#x27;s simply not even close to looking like we have useful alternative let alone for the multitude of usages plastic can be used for.<p>For energy, we are even further of. This is a physics problem it&#x27;s not like there were just a bunch of easy solutions waiting for someone to pick them up. Oil won for a number of reasons.<p>What most people forget is that it&#x27;s not like oil somehow dominated simply because it was being promoted by some evil conglomerate, oil dominated and still dominates because of the many different ways we can utilize it to make our live better, safer, easier, richer more plentiful etc.<p>Furthermore things like this:<p>&quot;&gt; A central argument for fossil fuels’ continued dominance is that humanity will surpass 10 billion at some point, and all those people will want something like the Western living standards built over the past 100 years on the back of coal, gas, and oil. Yet what a poverty of imagination this betrays, especially in light of climate change, which hits the poorest hardest. How can that be the pinnacle of civilization? What even constitutes “higher living standards” in a world where the costs of our existing technologies are so transparent? Far from securing hydrocarbon dominance for another 100 years, the needs and aspirations of future generations demand it give way to something more sustainable.&quot;<p>Is especially missing the point.<p>Nature didn&#x27;t give us a safe and friendly environment we made unsafely, it gave us a hostile and unfriendly environment that we through the use of ex fossil fuels have made safe.<p>The poor nations will only be hardest affected if they don&#x27;t have access to cheap and plentiful energy which is what the environmental movement seems to be pushing for.<p>I don&#x27;t think that&#x27;s done on purpose but the result is that poor nations will be more dependent on rich nations if we don&#x27;t allow them to gain propserity.<p>I know that this is heresy on HN but it needs to be said.