Is weaning possible?

Is weaning possible?
Is weaning possible?

We are all addicted to black gold. Nestled in fuels, medicines, cleaning products, shampoos or smartphones, it accompanies us at all times. How can we detoxify ourselves from this “illicit” drug and, beyond that, from all fossil fuels?

This article comes from the magazine Les Dossiers de Sciences et Avenir n°219 dated October/December 2024.

It is found everywhere: it is nestled in most of the objects we use and underlies many of our actions. Representing more than 30% of global energy consumption, oil is the most used energy source. An engine of economic and demographic growth, it also plays a major role in our daily lives. But black gold is a fossil energy, and therefore likely to run out one day.

More worrying: oil and its derivatives (gasoline, kerosene, fuel oil) constitute, with gas and coal, the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions, the cause of climate change. And yet: although we have become aware of the finite nature of fossil fuels and the disastrous impact of rising temperatures on the planet, we are still “addicted” to oil.

Read also40 years ago, ExxonMobil already had accurate predictions about global warming

“We use almost as much water as we drink.”

“World consumption has exploded and today stands at 102 million barrels per day, roughly twice as much as in the 1990s! alerts Juliette Jannes, chemical engineer, who worked in the oil industry before co-founding the climate and environment consulting firm Rong Yi. It’s colossal: we use almost as much as we drink water: two liters per day on average per inhabitant on the planet, much more for a French person, who lives in a very developed economy.”

At the global level, demand continues to grow, albeit less quickly than before, “but this slowing trend is more than offset by the demographic growth of emerging powers adds Matthieu Auzanneau, director of the Shift Project, a think tank on the energy transition. Because their economic development is entirely linked to energy[…]

Read more on sciencesetavenir.fr

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