Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuzz
That's a baffling statement. Cheap energy AND petroleum products are responsible for making billions of lives better. Electricity hasn't been power for vehicles, ships, trains and airplanes, petroleum has. Electricity doesn't allow for plastics that, amoung other things, have made modern medicine possible. Has electricity also contributed to the industrial revolution? Absolutely. But the vast majority of that has been generated by fossil fuels.
That's a la-la land statement if I've ever heard one.
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No it's not. Its understanding history and an unwillingness to swallow what comes from the fossil fuel industry and the think tank community that creates their propaganda.
The world is what it is because of the industrial revolutions. Yes, multiple revolutions. The first (1765) was when mechanized systems and the steam engine were discovered and used to expand industrialization. At first, the steam engine was driven by the use of wood, but later coal would be used as it burned hotter and longer. The second revolution was the energy revolution (1870). Electricity, then oil and gas would, power this revolution. Many of the developments of this period were driven by electricity. Tesla, Edison, Marconi, Bell, etc. would not have made their discoveries without electricity. Imagine a world without the light bulb, radio, the telephone, radar, refrigeration, computers, etc, all a result of the discovery of electricity. The next revolution is the nuclear and technology revolution (1969). Nuclear power should be a game changer, but there is a powerful lobby that prevents this from happening. Technology in the shape of the transistor and micro-processor have created the greatest change and betterment of people's lives on this planet, and all of it runs on electricity.
The first industrial revolution used water and steam to mechanize production, the second used electric energy to create mass production and the third used electronics and information technology to automate production. Today a fourth industrial revolution is underway which builds upon the third revolution and the digital revolution that has been taking place since the middle of the last century.
Plastics are not just based on petroleum products. The first plastic was demonstrated in 1862 by Alexander Parkes and was made from organic cellulose. Celluloid was used in many products that many people mistook for plastic including billiard balls. Then came formaldehyde resins, more commonly known as bakelite. This was originally an all organic product, but later shifted to a cheaper production method using a waste product from coal mining. This made it the first plastic to use a fossil fuel product, but it could have been made organically, albeit more expensive. Bakelite is a high quality product and many of the products made with this material still look brand new. Petrochemical plastic for consumer products didn't really become a reality until after WWII. Many of the things we rely upon today could be created with organic plastics. We only choose to do things out of convenience and because we are told it is easier.