Michiel CornelissenOct 10, 2023
David Ho
The world will eventually run out of fossil fuels, so our choice is really between stopping their use on our own terms now or being forced to find alternatives in the future while having a terrible climate, tens of millions of deaths from air pollution and climate disasters, higher sea level, etc.
Oct 9, 2023 at 4:38pmWeb
Show threadPeter GleickOct 9, 2023
@davidho
We will, of course, never run out of fossil fuels. Long before we did, we'll run out of the ability of the planet to absorb the environmental costs of burning them. That's the limiting factor.
Show threadJohn StonierOct 9, 2023

@petergleick
Exactly. The problem is we've just released a 100 million years or so of the earth's stored carbon in just 100 years. There's still a billion or two left in the ground.

Fortunately electrification makes everything 4x as efficient, and there is an unlimited supply of free renewable energy. Sure, it's an infrastructure change, but how hard was it to go from landlines to smart phones?

Show threadPeter BrownOct 9, 2023
@petergleick @davidho yes, the Stone Age didn’t finish through lack of stone
Show threadLuuk_AaldersOct 9, 2023

@davidho

"They" will choose for the profit, not for the climate.

Show threadProf Dr Richard S.J. Tol MAEOct 10, 2023

@davidho It's better than that.

We'll run out of oil and gas long before we run out of coal.

Switching from oil and gas to coal is as expensive and disruptive as switching to renewables, if not more so.

Show threadDan EtchellsOct 10, 2023
@davidho - but the people in charge are busy making money out of fossil fuels, at the moment, so that's the way it'll stay, until it's even more much, much too late...
Show threadanlomedadOct 10, 2023
@davidho
Curious, isn't it, how one intuitively assumes the show would go on and on, never mind compounding impacts of climate disasters on societal systems ripping through the fabric of civilisation.
Complex-specialised trained personell is holding everything together in all supply chain steps. If they don't show up at work because they fled to the countryside or died in a famine or a violence outbreak against refugees, who then is going to mine, process, ship all the raw material, including fossil fuels, to keep civilisation afloat?
Show threadThree plus or minus fiveOct 10, 2023

@davidho

The problem being of course that people own those remaining fuels and do not want to see them become useless. And these people rule us.

Show threadGeneration ZenOct 10, 2023
@davidho death route it is then!
Show threadSane ThinkerOct 13, 2023
@davidho If we can't force a social makeover, we're not going to make it. Pretty sure everyone in this thread knows about #Degrowth. I boil it down to as article size explanation, rather than a book. I hope everyone will share it. So many don't even know of the concept. https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/degrowth-the-vision-we-must-demand
Degrowth: The Vision We Must Demand

We Must Learn Less is More

Sane Thoughts for Insane Times