We are currently living in a time of never-before abundance of energy and all kinds of niceties, suggests Vaclav Smil in his new book, "How the World Really Works." Modern humans are animals, products of evolution like any other, and yet we noticeably do not spend every minute of every day struggling to get the material required to survive. Instead, we build cathedrals and watch football, we make art, we waste time on Twitter. That is because we live on the gigantic, blessing of our fossil fuel inheritance. We can’t do without them, and there’s no easy carbon-free alternative way of making them.
Most of us don’t realise how that energy is actually used. A large percentage, for instance, is used to create four materials which are the building blocks of modern society – materials which are so ubiquitous that we barely notice them, even as we depend on them. These four basic pillars of human civilisation as steel, cement, plastic and ammonia. We can’t do without them, and there’s no easy carbon-free alternative way of making them.
