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I hope the whole planet (and not just the people who control oil and the media) get a reality check and switch to renewable/green energy sources as we are reall

I hope the whole planet (and not just the people who control oil and the media) get a reality check and switch to renewable/green energy sources as we are really poisoning our planet. But since Oil is a big-business the fight to get rid of it before IT gets rid of us will not end any time soon.

exabrial 10y ago
It's a bit more complicated than that. Roughly 1/3 of hydrocarbon use in the USA's goes to 'cars', 1/3 'electricity production', and 1/3 makes 'stuff'. Of the rough thirds, the 1/3 that makes energy is mostly domesticly sourced, which is a good thing. We can ethically produce that as a backup to renewables (safety and reliability reasons). The third that 'makes cars go' was majority foreign until the 90s. Fortunately we've turned that number around. Electric vehicles don't have the energy density of gas cars yet. If you don't live in the desert of California/NYC/etc, they're quite inconvenient. We need stronger magnets and denser batteries. We can drive innovation in this area by letting market forces act. Qe need to be careful about over regulation, as to not drive reverse progress. I'm very hopeful and happy for electric in this area to dominate. The final third that goes to 'making things' can't be easily replaced ATM. Hydrocarbon feedstocks to make everything from medicine to lightweight carbon fiber are made from oil. We could possibly produce this domestically and at least be assured it's being done ethically and safely. This is the slowest area of innovation unfortunately, and if you're reading this, in your lifetime will likely not be replaced by a process that doesn't involve hydrocarbons. A breakthrough in this area would be sorting waste materials for recycling, or an electric power source so dense, reliable, and cheap we could capture co2 and turn it into hydrocarbons (maybe nuclear here?)
- astrange 10y ago
  Making things from hydrocarbons is less of an environmental issue, since the carbon ends up becoming plastic instead of being released into the air. It's still worrying that some clean freak countries like Japan wrap everything in 3 layers of plastic that can't be recycled.

exabrial 10y ago

It's a bit more complicated than that. Roughly 1/3 of hydrocarbon use in the USA's goes to 'cars', 1/3 'electricity production', and 1/3 makes 'stuff'. Of the rough thirds, the 1/3 that makes energy is mostly domesticly sourced, which is a good thing. We can ethically produce that as a backup to renewables (safety and reliability reasons). The third that 'makes cars go' was majority foreign until the 90s. Fortunately we've turned that number around. Electric vehicles don't have the energy density of gas cars yet. If you don't live in the desert of California/NYC/etc, they're quite inconvenient. We need stronger magnets and denser batteries. We can drive innovation in this area by letting market forces act. Qe need to be careful about over regulation, as to not drive reverse progress. I'm very hopeful and happy for electric in this area to dominate. The final third that goes to 'making things' can't be easily replaced ATM. Hydrocarbon feedstocks to make everything from medicine to lightweight carbon fiber are made from oil. We could possibly produce this domestically and at least be assured it's being done ethically and safely. This is the slowest area of innovation unfortunately, and if you're reading this, in your lifetime will likely not be replaced by a process that doesn't involve hydrocarbons. A breakthrough in this area would be sorting waste materials for recycling, or an electric power source so dense, reliable, and cheap we could capture co2 and turn it into hydrocarbons (maybe nuclear here?)

astrange 10y ago
Making things from hydrocarbons is less of an environmental issue, since the carbon ends up becoming plastic instead of being released into the air. It's still worrying that some clean freak countries like Japan wrap everything in 3 layers of plastic that can't be recycled.