Is Fossil Fuel Use Going UP?

14-01-24 00 / episode: 363

What's going on? We're supposed to be in a climate crisis and we're using more fossil fuels than before? Personally, I can't believe this, but I can. Hi and welcome to the Les Perras podcast episode number 363. This episode is about the increasing use of fossil fuels in the face of climate crisis.

Climate Crisis

We are in the midst of a climate crisis today. We just experienced the hottest year on record. Climate patterns are changing around the world and droughts and flooding are happening at unprecedented levels. In the face of this we have climate change deniers who feel the climate is not changing. We have business owners rubbing their hands and trying to make more money. We have climate scientists, who say there is indisputable evidence that man has changed the climate and is continuing to change the climate. They say we must further reduce our fossil fuel consumption.

Renewable energy

Renewable energy, which is energy that comes from renewable sources such as sunlight, wind, and water is increasing. Our technology is better and better at producing energy from these sources. We are creating large, renewable energy farms to get energy. In spite of this, we're barely making a dent in our fossil fuel energy use.

Fossil Fuels

Fossil fuel use is continuing, and we are continuing to use more of them. There is some good news in that in Europe and North America the number of coal fired energy plants is going down. On the other hand, China alone more than offset this reduction by the creation of more coal fired energy plants. And there are other coal fired energy. Plants going up in other countries.

Oil Production

We need to be cutting back on how much oil we're using. When I look at the graphs of oil production around the world, all the lines are going up. We are producing more oil. We are getting politicians, who promise to produce even more. Of the top seven oil producing countries on the graph only one is reducing their oil production. All of the others are remaining stable or increasing.

Where are we going?

But not all hope is lost number To bigin with there are still plans to produce more renewable energy farms. They're being built as we speak. The cost of renewable energy is going down. There will come a point when it simply won't make economic sense to use fossil fuels, because renewable fuels will be cheaper. The forecast is by the end of the decade fossil fuel use will have peaked and start to decline. The problem is that it hasn't peaked yet, but the forecasters say it is set to peak and after the peak it will only decline. We can look forward to a cleaner, cheaper, energy-abundant world that doesn create climate crises. The only question is, can we do it fast enough? Thank you for listening.