[PKop]

The use of fossil fuels equates directly to higher standard of living, military power, wealth, prosperity, and advanced economies. As well, transportation is heavily dependent on fossil fuels. "Exiting" fossil fuels means either nothing, or it means impoverishing your people.

[glial]

The use of energy certainly equates directly to a higher standard of living. Oil seems like an implementation detail, with benefits as well as costs. Why not consider other implementation options?

[mindslight]

Or you focus on doing it where it is economically sensible, rather than being derailed by people who are seemingly triggered by the whole idea.

[CalRobert]

This was true for exiting horses too at one point. It's not 1975 anymore.

[cyberax]

Not long ago this was linked to coal and cancer. And even higher rates of cancer and lung disease correlated with higher standards of living. Should we start advocating for the return to coal? Maybe transplanting cancers to cause better prosperity?

> "Exiting" fossil fuels means either nothing, or it means impoverishing your people.

Utter bullshit. Exiting fossil fuels means prosperity for the people in the near future (the next generation). Staying on fossil fuels means stagnation and decay.

Don't believe me? I welcome you to visit West Virginia. Or pretty much any former coal-mining region, for that matter. Almost all of them are a depressing sight.

[xp84]

Aren't the former coal-mining regions badly impoverished today because we dramatically cut back our usage of their primary economic product?

I'm not sure that supports your point. I don't think they are stagnating and decaying because they want to keep mining coal specifically, it's just that the coal miners and their next generation don't have any capital to found cool innovative startups, and not enough people with capital have any incentive to go there and make job-creating ventures to employ them.

[cyberax]

It absolutely supports my point. Countries and regions that stopped using or depending on coal early are now doing better than regions that are still clinging to it.

Yes, in the past coal was useful, and having access to coal was linked to prosperity. Oil is associated with prosperity now. But the writing is on the wall for oil.

And speaking of the current meeting, I don't know a single example of a country that decided to buck the trend and got rich by selling coal when the world started switching to oil/gas.