Fossil fuel depletion is also a key impetus for the action in Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card. TV Tropes calls this a "Mo

Fossil fuel depletion is also a key impetus for the action in Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card. TV Tropes calls this a "Morton's Fork" and describes it for this book as: What spurs the decision to change the past even though it'll erase our timeline and existence is the fact that Earth is doomed to an even worse apocalyptic scenario than the one they've already experienced. The human population will be reduced to under 10 million, and humanity will be plunged back into the Stone Ages with little hope of ever rising to civilization ever again, as they have exhausted all easily available energy sources and climate change means they will soon be facing a new ice age. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/PastwatchTheRedemptionOfChristopherColumbus https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/PastwatchT...