4 ms·
The truth is that our current population level can only be supported by fossil fuels, which are becoming increasingly harder to exploit. As society collapses, t
by eulgro 4y ago
The truth is that our current population level can only be supported by fossil fuels, which are becoming increasingly harder to exploit. As society collapses, technology required for extraction may be lost. Fossil fuels will take millions of year to regenerate.
- asvitkine 4y agoWhy can't other energy sources support it? There's plenty of geothermal energy or let's say nuclear.
- eulgro 4y agoSurely other energy sources can be a replacement, but for a lot of things, fossil fuel is still the only solution today (agriculture, mining, air travel). Can we manage the energy transition? Perhaps. I was always a pessimist, so my guess is no. The technology for it has yet to be invented. In overshoot territory, we're already living on borrowed time. The world's ecological footprint widely exceeds the Earth biocapacity has long been exceeded, now imagine 8 billion people who want to live the lifestyle of Americans. Demand in energy just keeps growing. Renewables don't even displace fossil fuels, they only increase the total energy output.
- actuallyalys 4y agoThat might turn out to be the case, but we just don't know. Notably, there are some industrial processes that use fossil fuels directly and can't be trivially swapped out for grid power. Those processes might not be possible after a certain point. However, we've had fossil fuels for the entire history of industrial production, so there hasn't been pressure to invent other techniques.