This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for fossil fuels

Thank you big oil.

A partial list of products made from Petroleum (6000 items). One 42-gallon barrel of oil creates 19.4 gallons of gasoline. The rest (over half) is used to make things like: Although the major use of petroleum is as a fuel, (gasoline, jet fuel, heating oil), and petroleum and
natural gas are often used to generate electricity, there are many other uses.

Here are some of the ways petroleum is used in our every day lives.
All plastic is made from petroleum and plastic is used almost
everywhere: in cars, houses, toys, computers and clothing. Asphalt used
in road construction is a petroleum product as is the synthetic rubber
in the tires. Paraffin wax comes from petroleum, as do fertilizer,
pesticides, herbicides, detergents, phonograph records, photographic
film, furniture, packaging materials, surfboards, paints, and artificial
fibers used in clothing, upholstery, and carpet backing. Solvents
Diesel Motor Oil Bearing Grease Ink Floor Wax Ballpoint Pens Football
Cleats Upholstery Sweaters Boats Insecticides Bicycle Tires Sports Car
Bodies Nail Polish Fishing lures Dresses Tires Golf Bags Perfumes
Cassettes Dishwasher Tool Boxes Shoe Polish Motorcycle Helmet Caulking
Petroleum Jelly Transparent Tape CD Player Faucet Washers Antiseptics
Clothesline Curtains Food Preservatives Basketballs Soap Vitamin
Capsules Antihistamines Purses Shoes Dashboards Cortisone Deodorant
Footballs Putty Dyes Panty Hose Refrigerant Percolators Life Jackets
Rubbing Alcohol Linings Skis TV Cabinets Shag Rugs Electrician's Tape
Tool Racks Car Battery Cases Epoxy Paint Mops Slacks Insect Repellent
Oil Filters Umbrellas Yarn Fertilizers Hair Coloring Roofing Toilet
Seats Fishing Rods Lipstick Denture Adhesive Linoleum Ice Cube Trays
Synthetic Rubber Speakers Plastic Wood Electric Blankets Glycerin Tennis
Rackets Rubber Cement Fishing Boots Dice Nylon Rope Candles Trash Bags
House Paint Water Pipes Hand Lotion Roller Skates Surf Boards Shampoo
Wheels Paint Rollers Shower Curtains Guitar Strings Luggage Aspirin
Safety Glasses Antifreeze Football Helmets Awnings Eyeglasses Clothes
Toothbrushes Ice Chests Footballs Combs CD's Paint Brushes Detergents
Vaporizers Balloons Sun Glasses Tents Heart Valves Crayons Parachutes
Telephones Enamel Pillows Dishes Cameras Anesthetics Artificial Turf
Artificial limbs Bandages Dentures Model Cars Folding Doors Hair Curlers
Cold cream Movie film Soft Contact lenses Drinking Cups Fan Belts Car
Enamel Shaving Cream Ammonia Refrigerators Golf Balls Toothpaste
Gasoline Ink Dishwashing liquids Paint brushes Telephones Toys
Unbreakable dishes Insecticides Antiseptics Dolls Car sound insulation
Fishing lures Deodorant Tires Motorcycle helmets Linoleum Sweaters Tents
Refrigerator linings Paint rollers Floor wax Shoes Electrician's tape
Plastic wood Model cars Glue Roller-skate wheels Trash bags Soap dishes
Skis Permanent press clothes Hand lotion Clothesline Dyes Soft contact
lenses Shampoo Panty hose Cameras Food preservatives Fishing rods Oil
filters Combs Transparent tape Anesthetics Upholstery Dice Disposable
diapers TV cabinets Cassettes Mops Sports car bodies Salad bowls House
paint Purses Electric blankets Awnings Ammonia Dresses Car battery cases
Safety glass Hair curlers Pajamas Synthetic rubber VCR tapes Eyeglasses
Pillows Vitamin capsules Movie film Ice chests Candles Rubbing alcohol
Loudspeakers Ice buckets Boats Ice cube trays Credit cards Fertilizers
Crayons Insect repellent Water pipes Toilet seats Caulking Roofing
shingles Fishing boots Life jackets Balloons Shower curtains Garden hose
Golf balls Curtains Plywood adhesive Umbrellas Detergents Milk jugs
Beach umbrellas Rubber cement Sun glasses Putty Faucet washers Cold
cream Bandages Tool racks Antihistamines Hair coloring Nail polish
Slacks Drinking cups Guitar strings False teeth Yarn Petroleum jelly
Toothpaste Golf bags Roofing Tennis rackets Toothbrushes Perfume Luggage
Wire insulation Folding doors Shoe polish Fan belts Ballpoint pens
Shower doors Cortisone Carpeting Artificial turf Heart valves LP records
Lipstick Artificial limbs Hearing aids Vaporizers Aspirin Shaving cream
Wading pools Parachutes Americans consume petroleum products at a rate
of three-and-a-half gallons of oil and more than 250 cubic feet of
natural gas per day each!

Letsrun MO, all right-wing, all the time. Trolls never sleep.

Seriously, fossil fuels have brought us a long ways, and there is still a way to go because we still rely on them and there is no getting around that. However, there are other ways and looking forward to further development of renewables and cleaner fuels over the coming decades.

Why do you think they get a “bad rap” then?

Thank the oil while you can and you are right about it. Without oil we would not have machines and plastics to make our daily lives better. Soon we are running out of it and once that is happening it will be grim.

I’m also thankful for Fossil Fuel.

thanks to that, my whole family can get together this weekend

- my grandparents are flying over from Florida

- my uncles and aunts will be driving from another State

- my brother is also driving home from California with his Tesla, which is fuelled mostly by fossil fuel (natural gas 34%, coal 30%…)

All of which will still be here 500 years from now, plus 100+ more years of it

It got my daughter home today.
A thousand miles in a couple of hours.

Maybe you gas loving clowns can drink some petro while you fluff each other.

Pretty eye opening post. It’s pretty insane how good we have it these days. People - you can realize that eventually we need to get to renewables while still acknowledging that the OP has a point. Nuanced opinions are ok. Anyone who thinks humanity would have been better off without fossil fuels is either a psychopath, or they’re detached from reality.

The villain is not the fossil fuels but the hedonist liberals who tried to build a techno utopia upon their massive use.

And now they see climate change, do they say "oh no let's give up our tech utopia?" No, they say "oh no how can we save our tech utopia" with a different energy source. Then here comes greenwashing con artists "you can get it all from wind or solar" etc etc. Well you can't.

Libbo hedonists, the Luddites have won and will eat your techy livers one day unless you turn back now. The bigger you build it, the harder it must one day fall.

I’m pretty sure everyone liberals , conservatives and even non-political people use fossil fuels and pollute.

To me it is interesting. I read recently that burning fossil fuels causes some number of deaths each year from things like respiratory issues related to air pollution. I will grant that these conditions contribute to deaths. But we also need to weigh in the potential lives saved.

For instance, developing countries often burn rather horrible things in their houses to heat or cook. Does switching to a fossil fuel reduce those number of deaths?

On a smaller scale, getting people to medical help faster because we have fossil fuel powered ambulances or helicopters?

How much cleaner is natural gas than destroying how many square miles of forest and burning it to heat homes or such?

There are other things as well. Let's look at efficiency. Doing laundry by hand is time consuming. Having a washing machine (and maybe dryer) means that a person (often the woman) can use their time in more productive ways and make her family richer or even be more independent. Yes, non fossil fuel options exist and should be used where possible and might be more practical as you can use solar without a "grid". Sort of like how cellphones flourished in developing countries because the infrastructure (a tower) is easy to build than a network of wires and cables.

We have also made things way more fuel efficient to reduce the CO2 and also figured out ways to burn things cleaner.

Would like to hear of more research into accelerating renewable vegetation conversion to oil and gas.

1. today's conservatives are yesterday's libbos. About the only difference left is religion.

2. it's not about just using fossil fuels, it's how much. Not everyone uses much. Libbos insist on their tech utopia which requires incredible amounts to heat/cool their several homes, construct their massive skyscraper cities, and maintain massive highways to get to their favorite acupuncturist 50 miles away once a week.

Acupuncturists are a tip of the iceberg of useless frivolity the libbo economy includes.

Exactly! Most people take it for granted that we basically have an astronomical number of servants who're working for us for virtually nothing.

You can fly from LA to NYC and back for $300-$350, provided that you're not flying during peak season and that you're not going first-class. The total distance is around 5000 miles, which comes out to $0.06-$0.07 per mile. Now think about how much it would cost to pay someone to carry a 150-200 lb box (passenger weight) for one mile. And then factor in the fact that he'd be carrying the box at 2 mph and not 500 mph, and that he'd be carrying it 3 feet above the ground and not 30,000 feet above the ground.

I remember reading somewhere that the energy stored in one gallon of gas is equivalent to several hundred man-hours of physical labor. At $4 per gallon of gas and 400 hours of labor, you're pretty much having someone work for $0.01 an hour. Aside from fossil fuel, where the hell can you get that kind of deal? Even slaves need to be fed, and that food is going to cost a lot more than a penny an hour.

You post here a lot, you are using tech. Are you that blind?

Because of doom-mongers who sensationalize global warming.

Are you stupid? How much energy do you suppose it takes one person to surf the web for a while, as opposed to driving 50 miles to the acupuncturist?

Vast majority of web traffic is automated anyhow.

If you post again, try to keep in mind the issue here is not whether you use energy, but how much.

I'm thankful that Roe vs Wade was overturned. Hopefully abortion will be banned by more and more states.