Environmentalism, and thinking about our future in general has become a victim if false dichotomies (1). These deeply dividing questions are mere distractions however, steering attention away from the underlying predicaments our societies are unwilling to address.
Let’s take the following example…
Fossil fuels — or — Renewables?
A true classic. Notice how this one tries to reduce the complex question of climate change, and in a broader sense humanity’s impact on a massively complex ecosystem called Earth to the simple question of how shall we produce electricity. (Feel free to replace ‘renewables’ with green hydrogen, fusion, tidal wave energy, nuclear, etc. at this point.) If there were a contest to win the title of being the textbook example of a red herring fallacy (2) — this one would surely be among the finalists.
In the real world electricity generation is a mere quarter of our total energy use, while the rest (high heat, transportation, chemical processes and many more) are almost exclusively coming from, or powered by fossil fuels. Not least the entire supply chain of renewables: from mining, through smelting, manufacturing, installation and maintenance. Paradoxical it may sound, but fossil fuels are essential to renewables.
While in theory some of the processes can be electrified, most of them cannot, or the proposed solutions simply do not scale — not even on paper. We are planning to shift completely away from fossil fuels (or turn their emissions ‘net zero’) in a couple of decades, while the globe’s infrastructure took one and a half century, and the best of our resources to build…
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