I bet within fifty years that fossil fuels will be widely accepted as the most powerful and dangerous narcotic ever invented. No other narcotic is as contagious or mind altering as the enengy services provided by fossil fuel. The heat, light, speed from fossil fuels have rewired the brains of an entire species. No other narcotic is as socially acceptable or widely sold. No other compound numbs and blinds humans understanding of the natural world as powerfully as fossil fuels.
With tens of thousands of people displaced by floods, wildfires and hurricanes this summer, researchers warn that the majority of untapped fossil fuels must remain in the ground to avoid even more extreme weather.
Fossil fuel producers should avoid extracting at least 90% of coal reserves and 60% of oil and gas reserves by 2050, according to a study published in Nature, to limit global temperature rise to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. Even then, that gives the planet only a 50% chance of avoiding a climate hotter than that.
Global temperatures have already warmed about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 1800s, due in large part to the burning of fossil fuels, which releases gases that trap heat in the atmosphere. As a result of the warming, droughts, storms and heat waves are becoming more extreme, causing a cascade of disasters.
I bet future generations will come to realize how powerful of a narcotic that fossil fuels really are. Fossil fuel energy bends the human mind and spirit with power, speed, color, light, and warmth.
The tragic thing about addiction is most are blind to the deadly and destructive consequences of their addiction, and are blind to what addiction is doing to themselves and the community around them.
While optimism has helped to galvanize support for a global energy transition, a degree of realism is necessary as well. It will likely be decades before a full global energy transition can take place, and in the meantime, the most effective way to reduce emissions would be to control consumption. This is a process that faces financial, technological, and social hurdles, and predicting how long it will take is a near-impossible task. The energy transition may have begun, but there is a very long way to go before fossil fuel dominance is truly challenged.
The Save the Pine Bush Dinner was pretty good and the presentation on the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster was fascinating. Fossil fuel transportation is enormously dangerous, and while cutting corners may save oil transporters money in a very competitive industry, the truth is ignoring safety can have disastrous consequences.
I often wonder what I can do to help. I guess I could raise my voice and ask for greater safety, but would I be heard? I could sign petitions maybe lay down on the tracks blocking the trains hoping to win over a news cycle or two. I could vote in elections, vote for supposedly more responsible politicians. But how much would it really change things? We all are prisoners of the times we live in and the institutions that are bigger and more powerful than politicians that supposedly govern them.
I wish there was a simple switch that we could flip to fix all of society’s problems. I wish it was as easy as flipping a switch or blame politicians of another political party. But it’s not that simple and the hour is late. No serious person really believes we will ramp down fossil fuel usage until decades after we are getting harmed in many ways from prolific fossil fuel use.
"According to the EIA, there’s no Big Oil collusion to blame. Rather, it’s a confluence of market, industry, and regulatory factors that affect everyone, not just those in luxury cars. In August 2016, premium gasoline reached a 12 percent share of all U.S. gasoline sales, a level not seen in 13 years. AAA said the demand for premium gas is due to more car owners “treating themselves” as pump prices drop. That’s true, up to a point. About 80 percent of all registered vehicles run fine on regular, according to AAA, and in a given year some 16.5 million people mistakenly believe premium gas will improve their aging hoopties or “clean out” engine deposits. But another factor driving demand is that more stringent fuel-economy standards have put downsized and turbocharged engines in more and more new cars. And most, if not all, of those engines, whether in a Mini Cooper or a Nissan Juke, require premium for the best power and mileage."
"The refining industry hasn’t been able to keep up. Greater domestic production of light crude oil has led to a surplus of naphtha, a lower-octane feedstock. When refiners convert naphtha into reformate, a high-octane component produced in a separate catalytic process, they’ve taken advantage of the naphtha surplus to produce more reformate. But these greater volumes of reformate are lower in octane than smaller volumes, the EIA says, and with the plastics industry turning away from naphtha, refiners have more of an incentive to blend the lower-octane stock into their gasoline. In turn, refiners haven’t increased their octane production with overall gasoline production. In 2016, refiners dedicated 30 percent of their total capacity to octane production, a three-point dip from 2007."
