In less than a few centuries, 250 groundbreaking hydrocarbon processing and refining techniques were discovered. Their impact continues today, benefiting the 8 billion people living on Earth.
Today, over 6,000 products derived from petroleum enrich our lives. They have reduced infant mortality, doubled global life expectancy from around 40 to over 80 years, and made it possible to travel anywhere in the world by plane, train, ship, or car — drastically reducing weather-related deaths to nearly zero. These were all unimaginable in societies before 1800. //
Today, “Net Zero” policymakers setting “green” policies are oblivious to the reality that so-called “renewables” ONLY generate electricity but CANNOT make anything. In addition, everything that NEEDS Electricity, like iPhones and computers, is made with petrochemicals manufactured from crude oil, coal, or natural gas.
Electricity came after oil, as all electrical generation methods, including hydro, coal, natural gas, nuclear, wind, and solar, are built with products, components, and equipment made from oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil. //
If we go back 200 years to the 1800s, we find a decarbonized society, i.e., a very different era and a society without products, transportation fuels, and electricity. Fossil-fuel products weren’t widespread, thus lifestyles were less prosperous, health conditions were precarious, and life expectancy was short.
A renewed shift toward decarbonization and zero-emission lifestyles severely restricts the use of fossil fuels, like coal and oil, and could bring us back to a world of more than 200 years ago. That might mean billions suffering again from disease, malnutrition, and weather-related fatalities.
Moving toward decarbonization risks depriving, or delaying access to, the standards of living and products that wealthy, healthy nations take for granted. Today, around 700 million people, which is roughly 9% of humanity, live below the international poverty line. In other words, halting fossil fuel production and use would reverse many centuries of progress.
Over the last 200 years, after the discovery of the products and transportation fuels that could be manufactured out of crude oil, the world’s population has increased from 1 billion to 8 billion. It was more than 6,000 “products” from oil that supported the tremendous growth in population. //
Wind turbines and solar panels can ONLY generate ELECTRICITY.
All the products and transportation fuels demanded by society, all the infrastructures, and the economy are made from fossil fuels.
