Ever stopped to think where your lifestyle comes from? How the modern world is made? How it runs?
Most of us don’t. Least of all the small group of activists that gathers outside Australia’s federal parliament on sitting days, surrounded by hydrocarbon-rich signs, demanding an immediate end to all fossil fuels.
One of their number identifies as a marsupial, kitted out in an ill-fitting polyester suit made from petrochemicals. S/he/it and the other millenarians congregate on a path made with cement sourced from a coal or gas-fired kiln, as they urge passersby to repent their carbon addiction or face oblivion.
One ominous black sign warns: Coal Kills Kids.
Let’s check how the kids were doing in BC: the era before coal. The Australian Bureau of Statistics records that in 1900 there were 103 deaths in every 1000 live births. A century later that number had dropped to a tick over five per 1000. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports that children born in 2022 can expect to live around 30 years longer than those in 1891.
There’s more than a casual link between widespread, affordable electricity and increased life expectancy. Of course, other factors help — like access to plentiful food and better medical care. And all of that depends on hydrocarbons, too.
As Canadian energy polymath Vaclav Smil points out in How the World Really Works, the four pillars of modern civilisation — cement, steel, plastics, and ammonia — are all made with and from hydrocarbons. Without them, the modern world collapses. Yet politicians and activists call for their immediate abolition, blind to what’s holding up the roof.
Smil’s message is blunt: hydrocarbons aren’t just a power source. They’re the material basis of your life. (Every politician should read his book — or at least the summary he wrote for TIME).
Even food is hydrocarbon-dependent. The synthetic fertiliser that feeds half the world was invented by Fritz Haber (in a profound irony he’s also the man who pioneered chemical warfare). His ammonia process uses atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen derived from natural gas. Without it, billions would starve. So yes, you eat hydrocarbons.
You also wear them, drive them, and rely on them for medicine. Nearly 99% of pharmaceutical feedstocks are petrochemical-derived. Even the glue used by Extinction Rebellion protesters to stick themselves to roads is made from hydrocarbons. It’s the irony that binds.
Access to hydrocarbon energy is what separates rich nations from poor ones. It’s no coincidence that the UK’s industrial dominance was fuelled by coal, the U.S. by oil, and China’s rise since 1990 by all of the above. Today, China burns 58% of the world’s coal, 15% of its oil, and 8% of its gas — and its appetite for fuel marches in lockstep with its economic and strategic ascent.
Meanwhile, Germany’s trillion-euro Energiewende is collapsing under its own contradictions. It shut down nuclear, bet on wind and solar, and now finds itself burning coal again to keep the lights on. The result: the highest electricity prices in Europe, a rapid slide toward deindustrialisation, and rising public anger.
Climate change is real. But it’s not an existential threat. What is an imminent threat to our prosperity is dumb public policy — and Net Zero is as dumb as a bag of hammers.
The idea that Net Zero is achievable, affordable, and universally embraced is a dangerous delusion. Since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, global carbon emissions have risen every year — except during the global financial crisis and the COVID lockdowns. That’s the reality: emissions fall when economies crash. Otherwise, they rise.
Watch what countries do, not what they say. In 2023, global hydrocarbon use hit record highs. China, India, Russia — they will burn what we won’t. Under Trump, America will “drill, baby, drill.” Indonesia, Argentina and the countries of Africa will not follow the EU and Australia on a pathway to poverty.
So what are we doing?
We can harness the energy beneath our feet, stay rich, and use our wealth to adapt to a changing climate. Or we can impoverish ourselves — and still have to adapt to a changing climate.
To those who demand we tear down the foundations of modernity, it’s time to live your truth. Start with one day a week without hydrocarbons. No phones. No food from afar. No cars, flights, medicine, hot water or power. No… well just about everything that makes you rich and comfortable.
Call it Fossil Free Fridays. There’s already a TV show that models this lifestyle. It’s called Naked and Afraid.
Watch The Real Cost of Net Zero here:
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