A World without Fossil Fuels

Script:

The Los Angeles Times predicts doomsday unless we pursue “a world without fossil fuels.” The Secretary General of the United Nations agrees. So do many politicians and environmentalists.

This raises two questions: is such a world possible? And, is it desirable?

Let’s try to answer both.

It’s a fact of modern life that virtually everything we depend on depends on fossil fuels–oil, coal, and natural gas–not only because they provide 80% of the world’s energy, but because so many of the products we use and even consume are made from them.

I’m talking about petrochemicals; that is, chemical products derived from fossil fuels. “Petro,” as in “petroleum.”

Let’s start with something everyone encounters every day: asphalt. The US alone produces over 420 million tons of asphalt per year. The key ingredient of asphalt is crude oil, which binds all the materials in asphalt together. No oil, no asphalt; no asphalt, no paved roads.

But I’m only getting started. The paint on the walls, the flooring beneath your feet, the blinds over the windows – these are also derived from petroleum. The tube that holds your toothpaste, the detergent you use to wash your clothes, the containers you store your food in, the bottles that hold your medicine and your vitamins. They’re all made from petroleum.

Your computer screen, your cell phone, your keyboard, your mouse, your mouse pad, the coating around the cords that charge your phone; the casing for your car battery, the buttons on your shirt…

Yep: fossil fuels. Specifically, plastic–another fossil fuel derivative.

But that’s still only a fraction of a fraction of the full portrait.

The raw materials from which these products are made have to be transported to factories by vehicles mostly