Just one set of problems linked to diesel supplies and everything appears to come to a halt. While is diesel so fundamentally important? Transport comes to mind. Food production comes to mind. Energy production comes to mind. And diesel is not going to be replaced any time soon.
When European countries get together to talk about emergency diesel supplies, we know that diesel is not going to be substituted with nuclear energy, solar energy, hydroelectric energy, wind power and so forth to meet the needs that we have got right now and it might take decades before that could happen when and if we have got alternative sources of energy, powerful enough and reliable enough.
As if this was not enough, there are more than enough demographic and geographic challenges right in front of us, right now. The new Gulf War made clear that we need fertilisers to feed billions of peoples. Fertilizers do not come from alternative energy sources. They are chemical products made with oil. So talking about replacing fossiel fuels means talking about replacing fertilizers and fossil fuels are linked with many bi-products, including substances and equipment used in healthcare. The now humble aspirin plays a vital role to prevent strokes and heartattacks and aspirin comes from.... oil.
We need environmentalists to be much better informed about what we are dealing with and to stop being ideological. We need a lot more realism and pragmatism. Learn about numbers and uses. Learn about what is doable and what is not doable. Oversimplification can turn people off and is turning people. Can we collectively do better? Of course we can. And we collectively could do a lot better if we are aware of all the realities that we have to deal with. No ifs, not buts.
