Chemical products, such as plastics, solvents, and fertilizers, include more than 6,000 oil-based products that are essential for supporting modern lifestyles.
Recognizing that eradicating the world of oil without a replacement in mind would be immoral and evil, as extreme shortages of the products now manufactured from fossil fuels will result in billions of fatalities from diseases, malnutrition, and weather-related deaths, and could be the greatest threat to the world’s eight billion population.
Wind turbines and solar panels can only generate intermittent electricity. They cannot manufacture any products for society. The “energy conundrum” is that “renewables” only generate electricity, yet most products derive from oil.
Crude oil is virtually useless unless it is refined into the fuel and products that did not exist before the 1900s.
The world cannot eliminate crude oil and continue to enjoy the products and fuels manufactured from fossil fuels that can be manufactured into something usable like the fuels for the heavy-weight and long-range transportation infrastructures of ships and jets and the derivatives that make the more than 6,000 products and fuels that have made our lives more comfortable.
Globally, excluding China, about 3 million barrels per day of refining capacity closed since January 2020. The future does not bode well, as 20 percent of the 700 worldwide refineries are expected to close in the next five years, i.e., 140 closures. Further inflation and shortages in perpetuity are guaranteed, as those refineries are manufacturing the fuels for the jets moving people and products, and the merchant ships for global trade flows, of the products for society and the military and space programs.
China is coming to the rescue with 88 new refineries for manufactured oil derivatives that are the basis of almost every product being used by mankind, as well as the manufactured fuels used by every transportation infrastructure and the military.
The shortages of the products, fuels, pesticides, and fertilizers manufactured from fossil fuels will also contribute to shortages and further inflation in perpetuity as wind turbines and solar panels are both incapable of manufacturing anything; they just generate occasional electricity.
We may have long-range plans to generate electricity from wind, solar, or nuclear fusion, but no plans to replace crude oil that is manufactured into everything in our daily lives. Thus, efforts to cease the use of crude oil could be the greatest threat to civilization, not climate change, and lead the world to an era of guaranteed extreme shortages of fossil fuel products, as we had in the decarbonized world in the 1800s, which may result in billions of fatalities from diseases, malnutrition, and weather-related deaths trying to live without these products.
United States Department of Energy was established in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. Now, with 16,000 employees and a 31 billion dollar annual budget, and 46 years later, we’re importing more oil than ever!
World leaders have no plans to replace the products and fuels now manufactured from fossil fuels.
It’s shocking that the media continues to refrain from asking the government leaders and policymakers of current green electricity mandates a John Stossel-styled “give-me-a-break” question: Can you imagine our world without plastic?