Velshi: Our Seedy Love Affair With Fossil Fuels Will De The Death Of This Planet

Hurricane Ida will go down in history as one of the most impactful hurricanes to ever hit America. And it is a prime example of a natural event made more dangerous by the climate crisis. These weather events are not new — we’ve had flooding and hurricanes since the world began. But it’s the increasing strength and the frequency of these events that are concerning. Human-made climate change is exacerbating extreme weather. It’s time to admit the cold, hard truth: that our seedy love affair with fossil fuels and the oil industry will be the death of all of us. Or the death of our planet, which is the same thing. The science is clear that the burning of oil, gas and coal is quite literally setting the earth on fire. We all use oil. We need it to drive cars, travel on airplanes, produce heat and so much more. That’s what makes this a difficult discussion to have. But there is not a world in which we mitigate the effects of the climate crisis without fundamentally changing our relationship to fossil fuels.
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62 comments

  1. Hemp is something we need to start thinking of.
    Hemp can not only be used as a fossil fuel but it can help replace almost everything made from fossil fuels.
    Henry Ford built a car made of hemp and ran on hemp fuel-
    It was cheaper, lighter and stronger than current steel cars.
    If we had built our planes out of hemp we could have made some kick azz planes.
    They would have lost over half the weight and offered protection to the pilots.
    Unfortunately the people profiting off steel could not let that happen.
    We cannot make the same mistakes and place profits over a possible solution.

    1. @mark y With battery plants that are twice as toxic to the environment and have been stuck in the beta stage of development for 20 years.

    2. @The Big Sad Look at the last year, lol. How’s bout solid state emergence.Besides which the climate fight is about CO2. The toxicity can be dealt with and as said above the technology isn’t at an end point, though you seem to have some covert agenda regarding this issue.

    3. @The Big Sad And every diesel engine emits CO whether burning hemp, #2, or peanut oil, it is going to be a by product of diesel combustion

    4. Same “ex employees” of the FDA and CDC and major companies like Dupont, Monsanto, all get the good stuff made “illegal”. Plus, it was the reason they created DEA. So.. a hundred years of that did some people a lot of good.
      Monsanto locked away Kudzu, a 3.5x higher performer than Hay for all animal feed locked away as a “noxious weed”, because it crippled their ability to put their seed and requirements into mass sale worldwide too. Prior to WW2, it was the reason we were the nation of plenty, all animals fare better with it, ALL. And its edible as well, grows a foot a day. So.. you know..
      It was always about the money, not just one thing or another for energy. Using it all up.. is what human beings do.

    5. That single prototype cost five times more than a typical car. And it was only made for publicity… it was the Great Depression. Henry Ford wanted to show farmers that there were applications for their work, and that they should buy his products. Also, woven Hemp was only 7% of the car’s total mass. A hemp built hemp fueled car sounds awesome, but it just does not exist in this reality, and probably never will.

  2. It’s amazing it’s only average Americans in small cars and modest lifestyles to blame, not bureaucrats with yachts, mansions, private jets, limos (Private islands, a’chem), etc.

    1. @MJL
      Tax cut…exactly! Tax cuts that created jobs. Unlike this administration going for broke by writing hot checks across the globe. Wake up, this administration is going to destroy this country. Thats their plan and its as obvious as the nose on your face. This isnt a joke. Under this administration the United States will cease to exist as we knew it to be, A thriving prosperous nation where the only limits to what one could achieve is based on their actions, desires, objectives and their imagination. Do you want to see this nation fall?

    2. Do not worry about billionaires, they have 10 houses on lot of locations and 10 vehicles.
      You have 1 houses and 1 car so when is burned or flooded you are homeless.

    3. @Kloko Loko
      Plan better where you can have 10 houses and ten cars if that’s where you place your value, but hating on those who put in the work and planned out their futures only shows that people have a jealousy streak or a covetness heart. Having those qualities prevents you from receiving the fullness of what God wants for you.

    4. @Invisible Human it didnt create jobs or at best did so extremely inefficiently. Most corps already spend over half their profits on stock buybacks. They arent gonna hire more employees to fill demand that doesnt exist. At least when workers get money they spend it and reward companies for creating real world value instead of playing the market.

    5. @Invisible Human btw i do believe trump did some good things, but can’t say his expensive tax cuts were one of them

    1. I gonna tell you something that is unfortunatelly not covered in the media when it comes to climate change. And believe me, it’s worth to read this entire comment to the end, even if it takes a few minutes. Internal documents of fossil fuel companies prove that they were already concerned in the 1950s about possible consequences of CO2 emissions for the Earth’s climate. Furthermore internal documents of fossil fuel companies from the 1970s prove that at this time these concerns have already become a certainty for them. That means that already in the 1970s the fossil fuel industry KNEW that CO2 emissions will cause a dramatic climate change. And now let’s take a look on what could have been done against it in the 1950s until the 1980s:

      The “Kværner process” is a technology originally developed in Norway in the 1980s to split hydrocarbons like gas & oil into clean CO2-free hydrogen and solid carbon which can be safely buried again as a waste product. It is a method which uses electricity and it takes 75 kilojoules of electric energy to convert 1 mole of methane into an amount of hydrogen with an energy content of 570 kilojoules. Currently it is in fact the most energy efficient way to produce hydrogen, 7.6 times more energy efficient than electrolysis of water and even more energy efficient than steam-reforming which today is the state-of-the-art method used in the industry. The start-up “Monolith Materials” and their partner Mitsubishi opened a commercial clean hydrogen plant this year in Nebraska which uses the “Kværner process” and they plan to open 30 more plants in the coming years. Hydrogen can be used as a clean CO2-free fuel for cars, trains, ships & airplanes, it is used in the production of ammonia for fertilizers, in Germany and Sweden it is already used to make steel without CO2 emissions and it can be used for heating.

      Another method called “Methane Pyrolysis” is known even earlier since the 1960s. “Methane Pyrolysis” does the same as the “Kværner process” but uses heat instead of electricity and has a similar energy efficiency. Although it contains “Methane” in its name it is as well perfectly suitable to process higher hydrocarbons like oil. In 2020 the german chemical company BASF has announced that they have developed “Methane Pyrolysis” to the point where it can be commercialized. In the future natural gas from Russia will be processed to clean CO2-free hydrogen which will be used in the german industry to produce CO2-free steel and for the heating of homes.

      Now these two technologies target hydrocarbons. However there also exists a technology called “Direct Carbon Fuel Cell”. A direct carbon fuel cell is a fuel cell which uses coal instead of hydrogen. The first patent for such a fuel cell was granted in 1896 to William W. Jacques, US Patent 555,511. Now a direct carbon fuel cell does produce CO2 because it oxidizes coal, however its efficiency is twice the efficiency of a conventional combustion based generator. This means that one can use only half as much coal for the same amount of power as in conventional coal power plants. Furthermore a direct carbon fuel cell produces a concentrated stream of 100% pure CO2 as exhaust. One can therefore capture the exhaust directly without any complicated & energy intensive additional steps. This CO2 can then be either pumped into empty oil & gas fields, so that it is not released to the atmosphere, or it can be used as an ingredient for carbon-negative concrete like “Carbicrete” from Canada.

      So what does all this means? Not only did the fossil fuel industry know about the disastrous consequences of their CO2 emissions, they also already had the technologies to fix this problem decades ago. The fossil fuel industry has spent billions and billions over the decades to influence politicians so that effective measures against climate change were not put into practice. They could have used the money for R&D instead so that the “Kværner process”, “Methane Pyrolysis” and “Direct Carbon Fuel Cells” could have been used already decades ago. This way they could have been able to continue their business, making money AND contribute to climate protection.

    2. @xjaskix I know. He’s the most honest person that ever was. He beats even Jesus on that.

      I appreciate the sarcasm.

    1. Yes, he have 5 houses and 10 cars and you just one so when is destroyed you are homeless .
      Climate will affect you the hardest.

      Yes, buy your self a plane…right…

    1. Yeah. Until such time as our sun has reached the end of its life and swells to ingulf this planet, it will always be here. She’s just doing a little “housecleaning”, as it were. We’re the dust-bunnies and dirt she’s cleaning up.

    1. @Iso Bar Don’t you people get tired of losing all the time? It must be very painful for you. Poor babies.

    1. “Death of 8 billion people and the entire planet” – it’s just more proof the MSM has not been news for a very long time and is just in full on propaganda mode.

  3. Barry Soetoro doesn’t seemed to be concerned about rising sea levels, sitting in his 15 million dollar beach side mansion on Marthas Vineyard.

    1. “Barry Soetoro doesn’t seemed to be concerned about rising sea levels”

      Yes he doesn’t, he have 10 houses on different locations and 10 vehicles.
      What about you when your only house is burned or flooded ?
      Do you have spare house to go there?

      Climate crisis will affect the most regular people not billionaires or multi millionaires !

      Tax the rich and do energy transition from fossil fuels.

  4. Every time I arrive into a hotel into the US (I travel there 4-5 times a month for work) the first thing I do is stop the A/C.
    I don’t see the obsession with having the room around 60-65 Fahrenheit. I’m European, 70-75 is normal for me.
    Just this change across the entire country would impact annual carbon footprint.

    1. You obviously know nothing about the southern half of the hot and humid southern U.S. I do all I can to conserve any energy I have. I also work very hard for little money to pay for it. I won’t feel guilty for living with the many resources we have…..when the U.S. government squanders our tax money on transgender studies and the fruit fly’s breeding habits of Southern California. This government is supposed to be of, by, and for the people. We are not electing people to punish us. Good stewards of this country/world, which most Americans are, do not have to be forced to make up for those who don’t do their part. It’s about money, if it weren’t they wouldn’t be planning in their ‘green new deal’ to tax…fine…and fee…the entire country, money won’t stop pollution….we need The biggest polluting country to start this…Communist China….however, we know they will never be required to do anything to improve pollution or their horrible human rights infractions as long as Joe Biden is president. That is because joe Biden has been bought by China through the dirty dealings of his son, Hunter.

  5. This discussion began way back in the 1970’s. The Multi-Nationals such as Exxon Mobil, Ford and GM to name a few did the research way back then and continued to say the right words but all the time working against real change in line with mitigating the effects of fossil fuels etc. They continue greenwashing today. Money talks – we continue to see this today – big money influences politics and politicians. The big end of town is destroying earth.

    1. Actully the first climate change alarms started right around the time Titanic sank with an article about carbon emissions and greenhouse effect in National Geographic Magazine

  6. ” our seedy love affair with fossil fuels and the oil industry will be the death of all of us.”

    To quote Gene Wilder in Blazing Saddles with the same sentiment…

    “When?”

    1. Sooner everyday.
      The weathers only gonna get crazier…eventually wars over farmland will envelop all the livable land on the planet
      Remember it will take thousands of years for land covered in glaciers now to develop topsoil and will never grow like other lands due to reduced light

  7. We are like deer in the headlights of a freight train, except the poor deer has no idea what’s coming at it. If the subject is not the climate crisis it is a distraction. We’re facing an existential threat!!

  8. This is just the beginning of the peak hurricane season, and this is just the beginning of the horrors of climate change. My heart goes out to the people in Louisiana and elsewhere affected by hurricane Ida, but shouldn’t we be looking at relocating people in some of these low-lying coastal areas prone to hurricanes, rather than rebuilding homes, towns, and communities in harm’s way?

  9. Instead of embracing the reverence for nature and sustainability practiced by the America’s indigenous peoples, we have entered into a death pact with capitalism, consumerism, greed, and selfishness, largely forced upon the common person by large businesses and the wealthy, who continue exploiting us for the own short-sighted, immediate benefit. We bear some responsibility for that, too. For taking part, for allowing it to happen, and for allowing it to continue as long as it has. Until enough of us average citizens wake up and become active in changing how our cultures and societies operate, the downward spiral of our environment will continue leading us into a dead-end death trap. Capitalism and consumerism can serve a purpose. However, they should be viewed and utilized as just one tool at our disposal in our toolbox, and not overly relied upon, like a hammer used for every job, which does more destruction than good.

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