Imagine no jets, ships, defense, or space program!

Over the last 200 years, when the world populated from 1 to 8 billion, we learned that crude oil is virtually useless unless it’s manufactured (refineries) into oil derivatives that are the basis of the fuels to move the heavy-weight and long-range needs of more than 50,000 jets moving people and products, and more than 50,000 merchant ships for global trade flows, and the military and space programs.

Today, 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.

The “energy conundrum is that “renewables” only generate electricity, yet most products derive from oil.

• Wind turbines and solar panels can only generate intermittent electricity. They cannot manufacture any products for society.
• Crude oil, on the other hand, is virtually useless unless it’s manufactured (refineries) into the fuels to move the heavy-weight and long-range needs of more than 50,000 jets moving people and products and more than 50,000 merchant ships for global trade flows basis of more than 6,000 products in our daily lives that did not exist before the 1900s, and the military and space programs.

The proverb “you can’t have your cake and eat it too” tells us that you can’t rid the world of 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.

Read the rest of this piece at CFACT.

Ronald Stein is an engineer, senior policy advisor on energy literacy for CFACT, and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated book "Clean Energy Exploitations."

Photo: courtesy CFACT.