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If you abolish the use of fossil fuels, then you get other economic benefits. A portion of 5 million people who would have died every year due to air pollution
by labster 10y ago
If you abolish the use of fossil fuels, then you get other economic benefits. A portion of 5 million people who would have died every year due to air pollution would continue to produce economically. Those who would have been sickened by respiratory problems instead produce more labor. And we spend less resources treating those illnesses.
And then you spend less money on infrastructure to protect against global warming related disasters. And you eliminate the losses in productivity and infrastructure after global warming-related natural disasters.
And then, if renewable becomes cheap enough, it will be cheaper than extraction, making the oil near worthless (excluding the more difficult to replace uses like metallurgical coal and petroleum based plastics).
The problem is that the extrinsic costs of fossil fuel consumption are never really linked directly to the extraction industry. If you could do that, well, that pile of 10 trillion dollars starts to look a lot smaller.