Post Carbon Institute Presents

The Ultimate Roller Coaster Ride

An Abbreviated History of Fossil Fuels

It all started with a big bang.

Wait, we don't have to go that far.

The earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago.

Still too far, try this;

It's the middle ages,
people in Britain

run out of fire wood
and start burning coal.

But they use up
the coal in the ground,

miners dig deep,
coal mines fill with water,

Thomas Newcomen invents
a coal burning steam engine

to pump out water
so miners can keep digging.

James Watt makes it
practical for other uses.

Now we have ingredients
for the industrial revolution.

Fossil fuels and
a way to put them to work.

All hell breaks loose.

Coal miners bog down
logging coal,

rails make it easier.

Rails and steam engines
combined make a railroad.

Michael Faraday makes
the first electric motor.

Nicolas Tesla invents
alternating current.

Soon utility companies start
burning coal to generate electricity.

Meanwhile Edwin Drake drills
the first rock oil well in Pennsylvania

And Carl Daimler (Benz) builds
an automobile running on petroleum.

Coal, tar and oil are
turned into industrial chemicals

and pharmaceuticals that prolong
life, more population growth.

The Wright brothers start 
oil fueled aviation.

Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch make
fertilizers from fossil fuels.

Fertilizer and oil powered
tractors expand food production,

feeding more people.

WWI is the first
fossil fueled conflict.

Then comes WWII giving us 
guided missiles and atom bombs.

In between is a great depression,
partly caused by overproduction,

powered assembly lines make
products faster than people need them.

Advertising executives invent
consumerism to soak up overproduction.

It's the 1950's and
advertisers use television

to hook new generations
of consumers.

In the 70's there
is an oil shock.

Everyone shocked to realize
how depended they are on oil.

With the energy crises
the environmental movement is born.

But oil prices fall and
everyone forgets energy shortages.

There is a showdown between
market and planned economies.

Market wins, goodbye
"evil Soviet Empire".

Politicians decide the
market will solve everything.

Personal computers arrive.

Globalization takes over
when the market notices

labor is cheaper in China.

Suddenly everyone has a cellphone.

But world oil production
stalls out.

China is now burning half the world's
coal to make export products.

But where will China get more
coal and oil to fuel more growth?

Environmental problems everywhere,
rising CO2 levels lead to record heat waves,

floods, droughts, oceans acidify.

Top soil erodes by 25 billion tonnes
a year from industrial agriculture.

Ancient forests disappear,
species go extinct at a 1000 times normal rates.

Fresh water is
scarce or poluted.

Oil companies drill in miles of sea-water
because the easy oil is gone.

But a deep water oil-platform
explodes and fouls the gulf of mexico.

Manufacturing moves to polluting
countries where labor is cheap,

while the US becomes a casino,
the financial sector is 40% of the economy.

But Wall street is
over-leveraged,

banks fail, unemployment soars,
credit evaporates,

the economy is
on the verge of collapse!

Ok, present time.

It's amazing how far
we have come in 200 years.

Just 3 human life times,

from the beginning of
industrialism until now.

But where are we headed?

We can't keep doubling human population,
we can't keep dumping carbon in the atmosphere.

We can't keep ruining topsoil,
we can't keep growing population and consumption.

Or basing our economy
on depleting fossil fuels.

We can't just print more money
to solve the debt crisis.

It's been an exhilarating ride
but there are limits.

Now, it's not the end of the world
but we have to do 4 things fast.

Learn to live without fossil fuels.

Adapt to the end of economic
growth as we've known it.

Support 7 billion humans and stabilize
population at a sustainable level.

And deal with our legacy of
environmental destruction.

In short, we have to live within nature's
budget of renewable resources,

at rates of natural replenishment.

Can we do it?

We have no choice!

Alternative energy sources are important

but none can fully replace
fossil fuels in the time we have.

Also, we've designed and built our
infrastructure for transport, electricity

and farming to suit oil, coal and gas.

Changing to different energy sources
will require us to redesign cities,

manufacturing processes,
health care and more.

We'll also have to rethink some
of our cultural values.

None of our global problems
can be tackled in isolation

and many cannot be fully solved.

We have to prepare
for business as unusual.

Our best goal is resilience.

The ability to
absorb shocks and keep going.

If we do nothing, we still get to a
post carbon future but it will be bleak.

However if we plan the transition,

we can have a world that supports
robust communities of healthy creative people

and ecosystems with
millions of other species.

One way or the other,
we are in for the ride of a lifetime.

Understand the issues and pitch in.
It's all hands on deck!

Narrated by:
RICHARD HEINBERG

Illustrated by:
MONSTRO