A fable for the fuel protesters ...

[BTB 500]

Just one simple observation from me; as long as we continue to have machines, we will need lubricants. Before the oil industry, we used whale oil as the basic ingredient for machine lubricants. If we get rid of the oil industry, what do we use for lubricants in the future?

Indeed, plus all the plastics and other products that originate from the Chemicals side of oil companies (a few examples of which are mentioned in the OP). Far from just the obvious automotive petrol and diesel.

 

[DSM10000]

 

[grober]

Indeed its important to distinguish between oil as an industrial products feedstock and merely burning it to produce energy. The ready abundance of energy and raw materials provided by fossil fuels has shaped the world we live in today to such an extent that cutting it off abruptly would indeed lead to chaos. However it would appear that part of the fossil fuel equation is we have been simultaneously freely spending [albeit unwittingly until recently] on the planetary atmospheric credit card and it's beginning to tell us we have reached our credit limit and it's payback time?

 

[GeeJayW]

Indeed its important to distinguish between oil as an industrial products feedstock and merely burning it to produce energy. The ready abundance of energy and raw materials provided by fossil fuels has shaped the world we live in today to such an extent that cutting it off abruptly would indeed lead to chaos. However it would appear that part of the fossil fuel equation is we have been simultaneously freely spending [albeit unwittingly until recently] on the planetary atmospheric credit card and it's beginning to tell us we have reached our credit limit and it's payback time?

Another part of the problem is what the heck does one do with all of the parts of the barrel that are left over after the rest has been used to make useful products? Currently, they get turned into petrol and diesel…