sst-0547

This is talk about visualizing life without fossil fuels, we have an addiction to fossil fuels and it’s not sustainable. When I say we, I’m talking about the so-called developed world. The developed world gets 80 or 90% of all its energy from fossil fuels and living on fossil fuels for energy. In this way, it’s not sustainable for three fairly obvious reasons. First, on the left, easily-accessible fossil fuels are a finite resource and so some point that resource will be exploited and humanity will have to do something else. Second, setting fire to fossil fuels puts carbon dioxide upstairs. So we have the climate motivation, the clear consensus of the climate science community is with substantial aerobars still on exactly what might happen. Their advice is, this is a geoengineering experiment that was well advised to stop as soon as possible. And third, even if you don’t believe in climate change and even if global fossil fuels aren’t running out. Today it might be the case that your fossil fuels, our fossil fuels in a particular country or state have run out and you might depend on other countries or states for fossil fuels in the future. So you have a security of supply motivation for saying let’s look into really getting off fossil fuels in a serious way. I find all three of these motivations are equally compelling and I’m just going to take it as given now that we are interested in discussing life after fossil fuels.

The discussion emphasizes the unsustainability of the developed world’s dependence on fossil fuels, which supply 80-90% of their energy. This reliance is problematic for three reasons: fossil fuels are finite, their combustion contributes to climate change, and supply security is at risk. The speaker advocates for exploring alternatives to fossil fuels, highlighting the urgency of transitioning to sustainable energy sources.