3 ms·

>I sometimes wonder if our level of technological advancement would even be possible without fossil fuels. I don't. I'd say that fossil fuels were absolutely

• bumby 5y ago
  It does seem like much of society is predicated on burning things. I feel like we have an opportunity to change that paradigm should since the nuclear age began, but burning things is just so easy it makes us complacent
  • kingsuper20 5y ago
    It seems to me that any system predicated on population levels over the pre-industrial standard are a sketchy proposition. Even at the pre-industrial level, the environmental load has been high. Mediterranean goat deserts, death of large Pleistocene animals in the Americas, whale hunting. You could still have nuclear power, microelectronics, solar energy in a world with a whole lot less human meat roaming around on it.
    • pjc50 5y ago
      In the pre-contraception era, the human population was almost by definition at the environmental limit; limited by starvation, disease, wars, and so on. Just as all wild creatures are. Anti-contraceptionists are almost worse than climate change deniers.
      • kingsuper20 5y ago
        Maybe we don't need contraception, we just need predators.