"If fossil fuels are “killing us,” it’s difficult to see how or where."

Bryan Preston writes in part in PJ Media,

...So the rise of fossil fuel oil helped save the whales. It allowed us to electrify the world. Petroleum powers your computer and many of the components are made from it, too. You’re probably wearing something that was made from fossil fuels and unless you’re seeing by candle or the fireplace at night, you’re burning dead dinosaurs. Even electric cars are powered mostly by oil, coal or natural gas, with a percentage of nuclear power in the mix.

And the world population has gone up from about 1.2 billion in 1850 to 7.7 billion in 2020. Petroleum became a major world thing in 1859. If fossil fuels are “killing us,” it’s difficult to see how or where.

...And the world population has gone up from about 1.2 billion in 1850 to 7.7 billion in 2020. Petroleum became a major world thing in 1859. If fossil fuels are “killing us,” it’s difficult to see how or where.

Something may someday displace fossil fuel oil as our primary energy source. Maybe it will be cleaner for the air, but it will certainly dirty up something else. Economics will drive that change, not any government edict. We will turn to a fuel source that is more reliable and affordable than fossil fuels, if one exists. And whatever that next fuel source turns out to be, there will be no free lunch. Every fuel source requires something, either chemicals or materials, that have to be removed from the ground and re-purposed for our use. Windmills require steel and fiberglass, which require energy to produce, and plastics to coat the wires. Solar panels require metals and rare earth minerals. Both require batteries, which require chemicals. Where those things are located, under the ground and in which countries, who discovers them and who extracts them, will shape politics and the balance of power of the future.

For now, we’re dealing with the declared COVID-19 pandemic. How are we going to create medical devices from syringes to tubes and blood pressure monitors, how will we encase them in plastics, how will we secure them in cars and trucks and aircraft, and how are we going to move devices, drugs and patients to where we need them to be?

Petroleum and its by-products make all of this possible.

Read more here.