Elon Musk Asks The World To Stop Burning Fossil Fuels

The mind behind Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity, Elon Musk told the host of Wait But Why that people are running “the dumbest experiment in history” by continuing to burn fossil fuels.

“The greater the change to the chemical composition of the physical, chemical makeup of the oceans and atmosphere [due to increased carbon emissions], the greater the long-term effect will be. Given that at some point they’ll run out anyway, why run this crazy experiment to see how bad it’ll be? We know it’s at least some bad, and the overwhelming scientific consensus is that it’ll be really bad,” he said.

BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2015 has found that at present rates of extraction, we’ll be out of oil by 2067, natural gas by 2069, and coal by 2121.

Is moving away from fossil fuels possible? Sustainable alternatives include renewables like hydroelectric, wind, solar, and geothermal power can make it possible. That is why Musk got involved with Tesla, the electric car company, whose official mission is “to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass market electric cars to market as soon as possible”.

Is Musk trying to sell his car here by trying to convince the world that cars can run without oil or is he really trying to make a difference since we all know burning oil is responsible for about a third of greenhouse gas emissions?

Whatever the case may be, jumping to the next era of energy would by far be the biggest step in the history of mankind since we’ve already reached the point where there’s enough carbon in the atmosphere to cause catastrophic impacts to humanity.

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