Except we live in 2025, and we have modern green technology enabling us to do a lot of things differently.
We can get our power from renewables, and newest sodium battery/pumped hydro/thermal storage techniques are brilliant and more eco-friendly than ever.
We now have modern green fabrics, hydrogen steel, etc. etc.
We now have greener agriculture technologies, as well as efficient biogas collection and utilization. You can even make some polymers, like polyethylene, out of that alone!
We have what it takes to reverse course. But following that path means upsetting fossil giants, while also investing heavily into the infractructure. And right now, it is easier for politicians to ignore the passive crowd than it is to ignore their sponsors. We need to tilt that balance.
Long term, 50 years, we are looking at a terminal decline in what humanity will be able to do as a species. Going from kites to Apollo 11 in 50 years, for example, will never, ever happen again. And it wasn’t the guidance computer that got you to the Moon, it was 1000 tons of kerosene in a tube that did it.
You, like many, simply look at electrical power and think everything’s solved.
We certainly can run our affairs on renewable (sun, wind, water, maybe geothermal, tidal) sources, but that society will look nothing at all like ours. Think wooden windmills, not skyscrapers.
Probably for the best too, but the assumptions built-in to the necessary changes simply mean endless strife and pain in the meantime.
What do you mean I can’t have a car? What do you mean I can only travel on a jet 4 times in my entire lifetime? What do you mean we have far fewer citrus fruits in the grocery store in winter? Doesn’t food, like, grow all the time, like in the dirt? What do you mean we need fossil fertilizers and synthetic pesticides and endless machinery and irrigation to get me my smokehouse almonds? What do you mean I have to repair and keep my 10 year old washing machine for 20 more years? What do you mean I have to wear the same clothes? What do you mean I have to live in a box when my parents had a home with a front and backyard?
It’s going to get ugly, and the fact that the richest few, and I don’t mean Elon, I mean you and me chatting on a workday afternoon, have shiny toys means all that much.
Electricity runs the appliances that fossil fuels allow us to build.
Electrical power + water = rocket fuel. You don’t have to use kerosene to launch to space - not that it’s the highest priority anyway.
Why do you equate renewables with primitivism? What exactly stops you from building a skyscraper in a renewable-powered world? We do have green steel, concrete and glass. Besides, most use cases do not require skyscrapers in the first place, and they are seen as undesirable by many urbanists.
Now, yes, switching to sustainable lifestyles is not without compromise here and there, especially on the first stages of green transition. We have to put our effort into this, and there’s no way around this. But with rational organizing, we can end up making something so much better!
Properly developed public transportation minimizes time and comfort losses associated with this mode of commuting, while making streets and air cleaner, freeing up plenty of space for pedestrians and buildings.
Comfortable high-speed rail minimizes the need for planes, enabling high-speed travel without all the airport controls and inconveniences and with plenty of amazing vistas.
Locally sourced seasonal varieties bring back the sense of excitement and allow you to explore so much more than just apples and oranges - there’s a trove of underdeveloped cultivars waiting for their time to shine!
Plenty of said cultivars are not particularly demanding; also, green fertilizers (for example, microbiological ones, alongside good old manure and compost) are available and can be produced at any scale you need without the need for fossils.
Easily repairable (user-repairable wherever possible) tech removes financial and organizational anxieties about breaking your devices. Something broke? Just…take spare parts and an hour, and it’s good as new.
Clothing can always be torn and reassembled in new creative ways! This opens up endless possibilities for creativity, and if you personally don’t like it, I’m pretty sure a local atelier will be happy to help you.
Community is key to urban living! With more interaction between you and your neighbors and the culture of common responsibility over shared resources, you can turn any “box” into a sprawling place people love to live in. We need to combat the individualist culture to make it work, though.
In this age of sustainability, there’s no issue in having a smartphone, or laptop, or whatever you write this on. In fact, right now there are tech brands oriented at sustainability, long-term support, user repairability and more. Fairphone, Framework, you name it!
We can build our tools, appliances and toys in a post-fossil fuel world. And we can make use of the materials we’ve already extracted to make it even greener.
Except we live in 2025, and we have modern green technology enabling us to do a lot of things differently.
We can get our power from renewables, and newest sodium battery/pumped hydro/thermal storage techniques are brilliant and more eco-friendly than ever. We now have modern green fabrics, hydrogen steel, etc. etc. We now have greener agriculture technologies, as well as efficient biogas collection and utilization. You can even make some polymers, like polyethylene, out of that alone!
We have what it takes to reverse course. But following that path means upsetting fossil giants, while also investing heavily into the infractructure. And right now, it is easier for politicians to ignore the passive crowd than it is to ignore their sponsors. We need to tilt that balance.
Technology without energy is a sculpture.
Long term, 50 years, we are looking at a terminal decline in what humanity will be able to do as a species. Going from kites to Apollo 11 in 50 years, for example, will never, ever happen again. And it wasn’t the guidance computer that got you to the Moon, it was 1000 tons of kerosene in a tube that did it.
You, like many, simply look at electrical power and think everything’s solved.
We certainly can run our affairs on renewable (sun, wind, water, maybe geothermal, tidal) sources, but that society will look nothing at all like ours. Think wooden windmills, not skyscrapers.
Probably for the best too, but the assumptions built-in to the necessary changes simply mean endless strife and pain in the meantime.
What do you mean I can’t have a car? What do you mean I can only travel on a jet 4 times in my entire lifetime? What do you mean we have far fewer citrus fruits in the grocery store in winter? Doesn’t food, like, grow all the time, like in the dirt? What do you mean we need fossil fertilizers and synthetic pesticides and endless machinery and irrigation to get me my smokehouse almonds? What do you mean I have to repair and keep my 10 year old washing machine for 20 more years? What do you mean I have to wear the same clothes? What do you mean I have to live in a box when my parents had a home with a front and backyard?
It’s going to get ugly, and the fact that the richest few, and I don’t mean Elon, I mean you and me chatting on a workday afternoon, have shiny toys means all that much.
Electricity runs the appliances that fossil fuels allow us to build.
Electrical power + water = rocket fuel. You don’t have to use kerosene to launch to space - not that it’s the highest priority anyway.
Why do you equate renewables with primitivism? What exactly stops you from building a skyscraper in a renewable-powered world? We do have green steel, concrete and glass. Besides, most use cases do not require skyscrapers in the first place, and they are seen as undesirable by many urbanists.
Now, yes, switching to sustainable lifestyles is not without compromise here and there, especially on the first stages of green transition. We have to put our effort into this, and there’s no way around this. But with rational organizing, we can end up making something so much better!
In this age of sustainability, there’s no issue in having a smartphone, or laptop, or whatever you write this on. In fact, right now there are tech brands oriented at sustainability, long-term support, user repairability and more. Fairphone, Framework, you name it!
We can build our tools, appliances and toys in a post-fossil fuel world. And we can make use of the materials we’ve already extracted to make it even greener.