Comment by morpheos137
3 hours ago
Funny, physics and economics don't just behave the way we want. The reason we use liquid and gaseous fossil fuels is not a cultural quirk but a function of energy density and fungibility. Each barell of crude pumped from the ground is a natural battery storing energy from hundreds, maybe thousands of years of biosolar collection millions of years ago. Until something is cheaper at scale and of comparable density there is no economic alternative to hydrocarbons. Maybe massive nuclear investment or ocean thermal extraction will be away out. Oil is literally solar power comprrssed in carbon hydrogen bonds and stored for aeons.
All of this can be true and at the same time it's massively harmful to use.
It remains true that the actual total costs of using hydrocarbons are not factored into their actual real world market exchange rate. And every time we've made modest steps to try to make that happen (carbon taxes, regulation) the resistance has been swift and brutal.