[crazygringo]

So? We build nuclear power plants and it's not exactly easy/efficient to extract uranium. Hard things are done all the time.

Having coal/oil is pretty irrelevant in terms of whether a civilization can build spacecraft.

[macintux]

"and when we drain the planet dry of easily-accessible fossil fuels we’ve deprived any successor civilization of its opportunity to escape the planet."

Successor. Whoever comes along after we've done ourselves in.

[crazygringo]

Huh? "We" is the human race, whatever civilization. What point are you trying to make? What I said stands, exactly how I said it.