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Comment by johnchristopher | Hacker News Reader

I am pretty sure emergency diesel generators use a tiniest fraction of energy used by tankers moving goods around.

Indeed. But simply closing down everything that pumps fossil fuel out of the ground breaks things we like and need. It's not that simple.

Or is the medicine still better than the disease? I don't know anymore.

Thing we need? Let's list them and figure out solutions

Things we like? Sorry? I like living. I like this planet. Things we like very seriously need to take a back seat to needs right now.

I've heard the same thing from a family member when I ask why they eat certain items while they are morbidly obese. Because they like them. Come on now, we're literally killing the planet with likes.

I like living too. I'm 100% confident that if we change absolutely nothing related to climate change, I'll keep living just fine.

On the other hand, I'm also 100% confident that if fossil fuels are banned tomorrow, my life will be much worse.

The choice seems pretty easy.

and that's why we have this mess: because of people like you in the governments of this world only thinking about theur personal, short-term gain... it's fucking ridiculous. don't you care about future generations and the way they'll inhert your planet?

At least he’s honest about it. 99% of the developed world has this mindset but pretends like they want to change.

Sure. You are rich, living in a rich country. The poor living in poor countries will pay the price.

Here is a list

99% of all the products you take for granted are using fossile fuels.

Medicin, contact lenses, paint, textiles, electronics, windmills, solar cells, concrete, asphalt, heavy machinery, most industrial manufactoring, all types of lubricants, plastic, mining, food production and I could go on.

If you like living you are going to need most of the above. In fact if it wasn't for fossil fuel usage the likely hoood of you being alive let alone as rich as you are today would be very small.

Energy is the industry that powers all other industries. You make that more expensive you make everything more expensive which means more people go hungry, less people can afford medicine, food production becomes more expensive and more people will die. It's really that simple.

If you really believe we can do without all these things I would urge you to live without anything that has been made possible by fossil fuel industry for a month. Then you will realize just how live giving fossile fuel actually is.

Numbers and quantities are important here.

Also, it's important to realize that just because something uses fossil energy now, it doesn't have to in the future.

Very good start for separating like from need, thank you! You're correct that these thing use fossil fuels, but that doesn't mean that's the only way of making them

We have more than enough oil in storage now to fuel diesel generators alone for a long time.

Emergency generators is not where the demand comes from.

The medicine is still likely better than the disease, but it really entirely depends on how much you choose to downweight the worth of the lives of future generations.

But yes, it is very likely that a solution will have to render formerly inhabited, far-flung areas as uninhabitable or at least much more expensive.

Diesel demand comes from shipping goods primarily. How do we replace the 4 million trucks on the road quickly? How do we get rid of container ship emissions? How do we solve backup generation problem? Go look at what's happening in South America right now because of low water levels -- lots of diesel generation.

We need to wean off fossil fuels but governments need to subsidize and support alternatives which they are doing bare minimum today.

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