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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 j

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.

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.