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None of the other creatures require energy to heat their homes, grow food, travel, keep the lights on, or ship cargo in a large inter-connected grid of supply t
by PM_me_your_math 4y ago
None of the other creatures require energy to heat their homes, grow food, travel, keep the lights on, or ship cargo in a large inter-connected grid of supply that feeds billions of people.
Everything is also manufactured out of petroleum derivatives. Without it, we go back to making literally everything out of wood and metal, or not making it. 90% of the items you have contact with everyday is made with some kind of petroleum derivative.
EV vehicles are impossible to manufacture without petroleum, so this is certainly a lot more nuanced than just free energy from space...
- hinkley 4y agoThey all require the sun to heat their homes, grow food, and travel. And that petroleum also comes from solar energy. Some of it from dead stars.
- johnea 4y agouh huh, uh huh, and WHY do you suppose EVERYTHING involves the use of petroleum? It's a classic capitalist evasion of externalities. Every single drill site is toxic waste disaster, that no one ever has to pay for (except of course, the impoverised who live down stream). To ignore the many gigawatts of free energy beamed in from space because petroleum will still be used in some way is evading the question. The fact remains: free fusion power is heating and lighting our homes every time we open a window shade. And if the combined mafia influence of the contruction-mafia and the petro-mafia didn't have us building houses with NO relation to how they point at the sun, we would use that energy to MUCH greater efficiency...
- paiute 4y agohave you ever been to a drill site? tons where I live. I'd have a picnic out there today if it weren't so cold. Gotta watch for h2s I suppose.
- ben_w 4y agoGiven the petroleum is made from creatures[0] which were entirely powered by sunlight, it should be clear that petroleum can be produced by sunlight. [0] mostly plants, IIRC
- westurner 4y agoAlgae, organic matter, heat, and pressure
- fnordpiglet 4y agoWell, not all plastics are made from petroleum and not all that are made from petroleum need to be made from petroleum, it’s just cheaper because there’s a ton left over. Without a petroleum based economy we would either use petroleum for plastics or use other sources of monomers. Plastic would certainly be a lot more expensive, though, especially during a transition phase to other monomer sources. But it’s simply untrue to say petroleum is required to build EVs, it’s just that today that’s what is used as the basis monomers for the plastics. It’s also factually true, despite a seeming loss of recognition in the last decade, that fossil fuels are not limitless. We might as well not wait for exhaustion before planning about what to do next, no?
- westurner 4y agoThose are "biopolymers", "biocomposites", but like Soy Dream not "bioplastics"? FWIU, algae, cellulose, and flax or hemp are strong candidates for sustainable eco-friendly products and packaging.
- fnordpiglet 4y agoNo I was thinking of monomers like bio plastics. But sure, biopolymers etc can work too as replacements. Silicon based monomer/polymers are also very promising. Carbon is a small amount of the earth, while silicon is extraordinarily plentiful. Silicone rubbers are probably the most common example. They use silicon instead of carbon for the backbone.