[[{“value”:”
Earth has existed for more than 4 billion years without present-day humans. In the past, dinosaurs and cavemen never used its plentiful natural resources. Today, with 8 billion humans on this planet, the few wealthy countries are extracting natural resources at alarming rates, and they are NOT being replenished.
- Crude oil consumption is more than 35 billion barrels per year, with less than 50 years left of known oil reserves.
- Coal consumption is more than 8 billion tons per year, with less than 135 years left of known coal reserves.
- Natural gas consumption is more than 132 million cubic feet per year, with about 50 years left of known reserves of natural gas.
- Similar scenarios for the exotic minerals and metals, like lithium, cobalt, manganese, copper, etc., needed to go “green” with EV batteries, wind turbines, and solar panels.
Technological advances motivated by the increasing cost of those resources may lead to other ways to locate and extract more oil, such as the “fracking” technology being used to extract more oil. However, Planet Earth’s resources are limited!
Our 4-billion-year-old planet has limited natural resources like oil, gas, coal, lithium, cobalt, manganese, etc., that are being extracted at alarming rates. Even with technological advances and increasing values of those resources in the next few decades, we may find “more.” Still, at current rates of extraction of those resources, the planet may be sucked dry in 100, 1,000, or 5,000 years, but this 4-billion-year-old planet will be here with or without humans. Shockingly, 80% of this planet of 8 billion are living on less than $10 a day.
The more than 6 billion people on this planet who are economically challenged may get a sneak preview of the attractions just by looking at wealthy and expensive California. California, with its 40 million residents representing only a minuscule 0.5% of the world’s 8 billion, is a very expensive state to live in, with the separation of the wealthy and the less fortunate growing wider each day. Using California as an example, with about 12% of the USA population, it accounts for 28% of all people experiencing homelessness in the country and 49% of all unsheltered people in the U.S., so a question for our Energy Literacy conversation is: Should there be a greater focus on the limitations of earth’s natural resources now being extracted for the enjoyment by wealthier countries on Earth as our 4-billion-year-old planet will continue to be here, with or without humans?
Renewables, like wind and solar, CANNOT exist without the products made from oil and major government subsidies. Wind and solar power can only generate occasional electricity, but they cannot make any of the 1,000s of products made from oil. In fact, renewable energy equipment is one of the 6000+ products made from oil; without oil, wind and solar energy would simply not exist.
Renewables CANNOT support Transportation
One of the most visible impacts of fossil fuels is their role in modern transportation. Cars, planes, and ships are all constructed from products made from the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil, and all powered by gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel — would vanish in a world without fossil fuels.
Renewables CANNOT support Industry and Employment
In a fossil-fuel-free world, affordable housing itself would be a nearly impossible dream. Industrial processes — construction materials like cement, steel, and glass — are all heavily reliant on fossil fuels. Without the products made from fossil fuels, the scope of construction would revert to pre-industrial techniques: wood, stone, and limited quantities of brick.
Manufacturing jobs, which underpin much of the middle-class prosperity, would never have existed. Instead of large factories producing goods for regional or global markets, small workshops might churn out handmade products — slowly and expensively.
Renewables CANNOT support Agriculture and Food Supply
The impact on agriculture is another glaring area of transformation. Modern agriculture depends on machinery powered by fossil fuels and fertilizers synthesized from natural gas. In a world without these advancements, farming would be labor-intensive, with productivity akin to 18th-century subsistence farming.
Grocery stores might be stocked with a meager selection of locally grown vegetables and grains. Exotic imports like bananas or coffee, enabled by fossil-fuel-powered shipping, would be nonexistent. Seasonal shortages would be a grim reality, and even slight droughts or floods could result in famine. food security would teeter on the edge of disaster,
Renewables CANNOT support Healthcare and Medicine
Without fossil fuels, it would also strip away much of modern healthcare. Consider this: medical equipment, transportation for emergency care, and pharmaceutical production are all deeply reliant on fossil fuels. Everything from life-saving antibiotics to syringes and IV bags requires petrochemical derivatives.
In a fossil-free world, we wouldn’t have the resources to provide much beyond rudimentary care. The polio vaccine, dependent on sophisticated manufacturing and distribution chains, wouldn’t exist. The mortality rate for childbirth, infections, and injuries would soar.
Renewables CANNOT support Modern Conveniences
Without fossil fuels, there would be no central heating from oil or natural gas. Residents would chop firewood or rely on coal (itself a limited resource in this hypothetical scenario).
Candles or kerosene lamps would light homes, cooking might be done over a wood-burning stove, and meals might take hours to prepare. Refrigeration, an unsung hero of modern life, wouldn’t exist, forcing people to salt, smoke, or canned food to preserve it — a time-consuming and imperfect solution.
Residents are bundled in multiple layers during the winter, huddling together for warmth. Without fossil fuels, their standard of living would regress to pre-industrial levels, where mere survival consumed most of their time and energy.
Renewables CANNOT support Education and Communication
Education, the backbone of a thriving community, would also suffer. Schools would be dimly lit, unheated, and sparsely equipped without cheap and reliable electricity. Children might need to contribute to farm work or family businesses instead of attending school regularly. Advanced subjects like chemistry or engineering would be nearly impossible to teach without modern tools and materials.
Communication would revert to handwritten letters delivered by horseback. News would travel slowly, and international correspondence would be a rare luxury.
Renewables CANNOT avoid an Environmental Irony
Advocates for abandoning fossil fuels often highlight their environmental toll. Yet, in a world without them, we’d see a different kind of environmental degradation. Without synthetic fertilizers, agricultural expansion would devour vast tracts of forest to meet basic food needs. Heating with wood would result in widespread deforestation, and rudimentary industries might still pollute waterways without modern environmental regulations.
Fossil fuels are far from perfect
Ironically, while fossil fuels have undeniable environmental costs, their absence wouldn’t guarantee a pristine Earth. Instead, we’d face the paradox of localized environmental destruction on an immense scale, driven by humanity’s desperate attempts to compensate for the loss of energy-dense fuels. In Africa, this is evident where people have no choice but to chop down valuable indigenous trees to use as fuel for firewood to cook and heat their rudimentary homes. Over 70% of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa relies on wood as their primary household energy source.
Everyone needs to ask each other why environmentalists insist on spending money and resources on litigating against the oil, coal, gas, and nuclear industries instead of advancing technologies that truly encapsulate the full circular economy of the energy cycle.
Waste-to-energy technologies like tire and plastic pyrolysis go a long way to close the loop between extracting new resources and deriving the most value out of resources that have already been extracted. These technologies should be receiving support and funding, instead of solar and wind, which create toxic waste and only electricity some of the time. Yet, funding and support to commercialize truly clean technologies remain an elusive bottleneck.
Instead of demonizing the energy sources for the products and fuels that built the world we know as home, we should seek balanced solutions that preserve the benefits of modernity while addressing genuine environmental concerns. A world without fossil fuels might look idyllic in the abstract, but in practice, it would resemble a dystopian world that is harsh, impoverished, and unrecognizably bleak.
Our modern “wonderful life” would never have come to be without them. Reiterating, Planet Earth’s resources are limited! At current rates of extraction by the wealthier countries of limited natural resources like oil, gas, coal, lithium, cobalt, manganese, etc., the planet may be sucked dry in 1,000 or 5,000 years. Still, our 4-billion-year-old planet will continue to be here, with or without humans, while the separation of the wealthy and the less fortunate continues to grow wider each day.
The post Planet Earth’s natural resources are limited to its 8 billion residents appeared first on Energy News Beat.
“}]]