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Humanity seems to be in the death throes of hydrocarbon addiction

AmericanChopper 7y ago
This sort of comment always strikes me as a sort of faux-ignorance to reality. Nobody’s addicted to fossil fuels. People simply have a demand for energy, they just want to power their homes, and meet their transport needs.
- Gibbon1 7y ago
  > Nobody’s addicted to fossil fuels Yeah we can quit any time.
  - AmericanChopper 7y ago
    Everything about this statement is wrong. > addicted Nobody’s addicted to anything here. There’s a demand for energy, and a supply of it in the market. > addicted specifically to fossil fuels Even if you put aside the frankly silly premise that anything the market has a demand for, it must be addicted to, the demand is for energy, not energy produced in a specific way. If you had two light bulbs, one powered by coal, and another powered by a renewable source, do you think there is a single person in the world that could tell them apart?
    - TeMPOraL 7y ago
      Well, people aren't addicted to heroin, they want their opioid receptors activated. :). > Even if you put aside the frankly silly premise that anything the market has a demand for, it must be addicted to, the demand is for energy, not energy produced in a specific way. Addiction also is a thing until it doesn't. Addicts can kick their addiction, especially if the underlying need is fulfilled by something else. > If you had two light bulbs, one powered by coal, and another powered by a renewable source, do you think there is a single person in the world that could tell them apart? Doesn't matter. The market cares about whether you can sell fossil fuels at a profit. Energy demand is what creates a fossil fuel demand, and our fossil fuel addiction will only end when we're able to close off the fossil fuel tap without immediately collapsing the whole civilization.
      - bin0 7y ago
        This is ridiculous. You're purposely conflating need/demand for addiction to try to spin something a certain way. I need food, water, air, etc. and yet would not call myself an addict. Would you? I don't think any one is claiming oil is a viable solution long-term, so why are you bothering?
- avip 7y ago
  Addiction is not a binary state. I simply have a demand for tech discussions. Yet I’m addicted to HN. It’s fairly easy to identify addiction - you try to quit.
  - AmericanChopper 7y ago
    Addiction isn’t just whatever you say it is, it’s a word that has a defined meaning. Addiction is the pathological pursuit of a relief. Now even if you think our consumption of energy is pathological (and if you want to assert that, you’ll have to prove that our consumption of energy is generated by a mental disease), then the addiction would be to energy, not energy generated by a specific means. This level of absurd hyperbole really doesn’t help anybody except climate deniers, who can quite rightly say ‘climate activists rely on absurd hyperbole’, or worse.
gbear605 7y ago
It’s an energy addiction, not a hydrocarbon addiction. Similarly, people get a nicotine addiction, not a cigarette addiction. They can switch to alternatives, like cigars, patches, and ecigs. Luckily, our alternatives are better - solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear.
- usrusr 7y ago
  The process workarounds required to run an airliner on geothermal energy are still kind of elaborate though.

This sort of comment always strikes me as a sort of faux-ignorance to reality. Nobody’s addicted to fossil fuels. People simply have a demand for energy, they just want to power their homes, and meet their transport needs.

Gibbon1 7y ago
> Nobody’s addicted to fossil fuels Yeah we can quit any time.
- AmericanChopper 7y ago
  Everything about this statement is wrong. > addicted Nobody’s addicted to anything here. There’s a demand for energy, and a supply of it in the market. > addicted specifically to fossil fuels Even if you put aside the frankly silly premise that anything the market has a demand for, it must be addicted to, the demand is for energy, not energy produced in a specific way. If you had two light bulbs, one powered by coal, and another powered by a renewable source, do you think there is a single person in the world that could tell them apart?
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    Well, people aren't addicted to heroin, they want their opioid receptors activated. :). > Even if you put aside the frankly silly premise that anything the market has a demand for, it must be addicted to, the demand is for energy, not energy produced in a specific way. Addiction also is a thing until it doesn't. Addicts can kick their addiction, especially if the underlying need is fulfilled by something else. > If you had two light bulbs, one powered by coal, and another powered by a renewable source, do you think there is a single person in the world that could tell them apart? Doesn't matter. The market cares about whether you can sell fossil fuels at a profit. Energy demand is what creates a fossil fuel demand, and our fossil fuel addiction will only end when we're able to close off the fossil fuel tap without immediately collapsing the whole civilization.
    - bin0 7y ago
      This is ridiculous. You're purposely conflating need/demand for addiction to try to spin something a certain way. I need food, water, air, etc. and yet would not call myself an addict. Would you? I don't think any one is claiming oil is a viable solution long-term, so why are you bothering?
avip 7y ago
Addiction is not a binary state. I simply have a demand for tech discussions. Yet I’m addicted to HN. It’s fairly easy to identify addiction - you try to quit.
- AmericanChopper 7y ago
  Addiction isn’t just whatever you say it is, it’s a word that has a defined meaning. Addiction is the pathological pursuit of a relief. Now even if you think our consumption of energy is pathological (and if you want to assert that, you’ll have to prove that our consumption of energy is generated by a mental disease), then the addiction would be to energy, not energy generated by a specific means. This level of absurd hyperbole really doesn’t help anybody except climate deniers, who can quite rightly say ‘climate activists rely on absurd hyperbole’, or worse.

gbear605 7y ago

It’s an energy addiction, not a hydrocarbon addiction. Similarly, people get a nicotine addiction, not a cigarette addiction. They can switch to alternatives, like cigars, patches, and ecigs. Luckily, our alternatives are better - solar, wind, geothermal, nuclear.

usrusr 7y ago
The process workarounds required to run an airliner on geothermal energy are still kind of elaborate though.