4 ms·
Fossil fuels hopefully aren't going anywhere. We should absolutely stop burning them, though. For instance, modern medicine requires petroleum and there's no
by firebot 5mo ago
Fossil fuels hopefully aren't going anywhere.
We should absolutely stop burning them, though.
For instance, modern medicine requires petroleum and there's no real alternatives at this time.
- dgellow 5mo agoDoesn’t the term “fuel” imply they are burnt? Genuine question, I’m not native speaker
- chii 5mo agoFuel is simply a noun for a source of energy, it doesn't need burning for something to be fuel. Look at nuclear fuel - it doesn't burn.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- firebot 5mo agoYea. That last part is a bit incongruent. My bad. Modern medicine relies heavily on petrochemical feedstocks (derived from fossil fuels.) These are used to make plastics, solvents, reagents, packaging, and some pharmaceuticals Many of these materials currently have no scalable, cost-effective substitutes.
- mcswell 5mo agoOP here: I was referring to fossil fuels as things we burn to drive automobiles, airplanes and ships, or to power electric generators. So yes, petroleum will continue to have its uses, just not power. (Although my ten year timeline was hopelessly optimistic, I admit.)