The Secretary General of the United Nations

the United Nations agrees.

The Secretary General of the United Nations agrees.

So do many politicians and environmentalists.

This raises two questions.

Is such a world possible and is it desirable?

Let's try to answer both.

It's a fact of modern life that virtually everything we depend on depends on fossil fuels,

oil, coal, and natural gas.

Not only because they provide 80% of the world's energy,

but because so many of the products we use and even

consume are made from them. I'm talking about petrochemicals that is

chemical products derived from fossil fuels.

Petro, as in petroleum.

Let's start with something everyone encounters every day,

asphalt.

The US alone produces over 420 million tons

of asphalt per year. The key ingredient of asphalt is crude oil,

which binds all the materials in asphalt together. No oil, no asphalt, no asphalt, no paved roads. But I'm only getting started. The paint on the walls, the flooring

beneath your feet, the blinds over your windows, these are also derived from petroleum. The tube that holds your toothpaste, the

detergent you use to wash your clothes, the containers you store your food in, the bottles

that hold your medicine and your vitamins.

...