Our World After Fossil Fuels

Our world is run on fossil fuels. The cars we drive, the planes we fly, the electricity that powers our refridgerators and the electricity that powers my laptop to be able to write this post are mainly run on fossil fuels. We are so dependent on them that we cannot imagine our current lives without them…but we are going to have to pretty soon. There is lots of debate on when fossil fuels will be depleted, but Ecotricity estimates our known oil deposits will run dry by 2052, known gas deposits will be gone eight years later, and known coal mines will be empty by 2088. Of course we will continue to find new deposits, lengthening our ability to burn fossil fuels but this is still a huge problem.

Graph showing future energy reserves for coal, gas and oil

First, let’s look at what the world would look like environmentally without fossil fuels. This implies we have burned every last drop of oil and gas and burned the last bit of coal; we have polluted the planet to almost our greatest capacity if not to our greatest capacity. “Burning all fossil fuels would produce a different, practically uninhabitable, planet…Our calculated global warming in this case is 16°C, with warming at the poles about 30°C. Calculated warming over land areas averages ~20°C. Such temperatures would eliminate grain production in almost all agricultural regions in the world,” (MAHB). If we could live on the planet, it would be quite uncomfortable temperature-wise and food production would be quite difficult.

Not only would food production be difficult, inspection would be non-existant and we would not have the capacity to provide enough food for everyone as harvesting and fishing would have to be done by hand. Water treatment would be depleted and humans would delegate back to a time of disease and death as a result of drinking polluted water. The Urban Heat Island Effect would create brutal conditions in cities and make them virtually uninhabitable.

Simply put, we need to find other sources of energy and we need to continue to develop our renewable resources. We must find a way to produce solar panels and wind turbines more cheaply and efficiently so that when the time comes that homes cannot be fueled by coal and oil, everyone can still have electricity in order to avoid a world of chaos and virtual anarchy.

 

One thought on “Our World After Fossil Fuels

  1. Aidan Quinn Graham

    First off I really liked this post. I think most people focus on the climate aspect of fossil fuels, so it was really interesting to see someone talk more about the problem of scarcity that arises from dependence on fossil fuels. Since fossil fuels are obviously non-renewable energy sources, and non-renewable sources will, by definition, run out, its interesting to think about that potentially apocalyptic scenario.

    It got me thinking about scarcity, and what it would mean for our energy economy.

    I’ve always thought that a carbon tax would be the best way to kick our addiction to fossil fuels, as it would essentially negate the current advantage that fossil fuels have over renewable sources (price). Subsidies for renewable energy, after all, are essentially an indirect carbon tax.

    But if fossil fuel abundance began to decline, it would most likely drive the price up alarming amounts, just as happens with any other scarce resource. This would act as an economic incentive to transition our energy needs to renewable sources, almost like a natural carbon tax.

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