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Comment by PM_me_your_math | Hacker News Reader

None of the other creatures require energy to heat their homes, grow food, travel, keep the lights on, or ship cargo in a large inter-connected grid of supply that feeds billions of people.

Everything is also manufactured out of petroleum derivatives. Without it, we go back to making literally everything out of wood and metal, or not making it. 90% of the items you have contact with everyday is made with some kind of petroleum derivative.

EV vehicles are impossible to manufacture without petroleum, so this is certainly a lot more nuanced than just free energy from space...

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Given the petroleum is made from creatures[0] which were entirely powered by sunlight, it should be clear that petroleum can be produced by sunlight.

[0] mostly plants, IIRC

Algae, organic matter, heat, and pressure

Well, not all plastics are made from petroleum and not all that are made from petroleum need to be made from petroleum, it’s just cheaper because there’s a ton left over. Without a petroleum based economy we would either use petroleum for plastics or use other sources of monomers. Plastic would certainly be a lot more expensive, though, especially during a transition phase to other monomer sources. But it’s simply untrue to say petroleum is required to build EVs, it’s just that today that’s what is used as the basis monomers for the plastics.

It’s also factually true, despite a seeming loss of recognition in the last decade, that fossil fuels are not limitless. We might as well not wait for exhaustion before planning about what to do next, no?

Those are "biopolymers", "biocomposites", but like Soy Dream not "bioplastics"?

FWIU, algae, cellulose, and flax or hemp are strong candidates for sustainable eco-friendly products and packaging.

No I was thinking of monomers like bio plastics. But sure, biopolymers etc can work too as replacements. Silicon based monomer/polymers are also very promising. Carbon is a small amount of the earth, while silicon is extraordinarily plentiful. Silicone rubbers are probably the most common example. They use silicon instead of carbon for the backbone.

They all require the sun to heat their homes, grow food, and travel.

And that petroleum also comes from solar energy. Some of it from dead stars.

uh huh, uh huh, and WHY do you suppose EVERYTHING involves the use of petroleum?

It's a classic capitalist evasion of externalities.

Every single drill site is toxic waste disaster, that no one ever has to pay for (except of course, the impoverised who live down stream).

To ignore the many gigawatts of free energy beamed in from space because petroleum will still be used in some way is evading the question.

The fact remains: free fusion power is heating and lighting our homes every time we open a window shade.

And if the combined mafia influence of the contruction-mafia and the petro-mafia didn't have us building houses with NO relation to how they point at the sun, we would use that energy to MUCH greater efficiency...

have you ever been to a drill site? tons where I live. I'd have a picnic out there today if it weren't so cold. Gotta watch for h2s I suppose.

Yes, in fact I worked on them. Enjoy your picnic on top of all the sludge buried next to the wellhead...

Oh, happy to just drill and frack through the aquifer slash water table. How much water does it take to drill?

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