-
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