There was no option. So everyone used them more and more. That’s been the story ever since. It’s a Faustian bargain. You get comfort and success now and someday your ancestors will suffer.
I mean that’s just a false narrative. We’ve know about the negative effects of fossil fuels on the climate since the early 20th century. Back then there may have been no other viable alternative. However, that’s not the case after the beginnings of the nuclear age in the 1950s.
The only reason we have been as dependent on fossil fuels is because of fossil fuel corporations influence over government. No one is saying that we needed to completely divest from fossil fuels all together. If we just used it for things like plastics, fertilizer, or just divested from using it for power plants it would have prevented the crisis we are having today.
bizarroland@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
Yeah, the current crises have all got one similar social foundation, and that is this:
middle-class people are aware that it would upset their rich bosses if they raised a hue and cry about it
When the middle class people step out of line, they get fired, they get demoted, they sometimes get thrown out of a window (accidentally), or they kill themselves, supposedly, according to the coroner’s report.
So if we start killing the rich people or forcing them to sign contracts saying that their wealth requires that they provide for the lessors, then what bad actually happens?
The world becomes a happier, better place that’s cleaner and healthier and we have fewer poor people and?
The only downside is that some of us middle class people might die in the process.