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Post Carbon Institute presents

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The Ultimate Roller Coaster Ride

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An abbreviated history of fossil fuels

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It all started with a Big Bang.

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Wait, we don't have to go back that far.

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The Earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago.

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No, still too far.

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Try this: It's the Middle Ages.

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People in Britain run out of firewood

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and start burning coal, but they use up the coal on the ground.

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Miners dig deep. Coal mines fill with water.

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Samuel Newcomen invents a coal-burning steam engine

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to pump out water so miners can keep digging.

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.

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James Watt makes it practical for other uses.

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Now we have ingredients for the Industrial Revolution

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fossil fuels and a way to put them to work.

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All hell breaks loose.

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Coal miners bog down lugging coal. Rails make it easier.

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.

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Rails and steam engine combined make a railroad.

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Michael Faraday makes the first electric motor.

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Nicola Tesla invents alternating current.

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Soon, utility companies start burning coal to generate electricity.

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Meanwhile, Edwin Drake drills the first Rock Oil well in Pennsylvania.

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and Carl Daimler builds an automobile running on petroleum.

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Coal tar and oil are turned into industrial chemicals

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and pharmaceuticals that prolong life. More population growth.

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The Wright brothers start oil fueled aviation.

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Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch make fertilizer from fossil fuels.

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Fertilizer and oil powered tractors

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expand food production, feeding more people.

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World War I is the first fossil fueled conflict.

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Then comes World War II, giving us guided missiles and atom bombs.

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In between is a great depression partly caused by overproduction.

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Powered assembly lines make products faster than people need them.

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Advertising executives invent consumerism to soak up overproduction.

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It's the 1950's.

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Advertisers use television to hook new generations of consumers.

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In the 70's there's an oil shock.

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Everyone's shocked to realize how dependent they are on oil.

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With the energy crisis, the environmental movement is born.

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But oil prices fall and everyone forgets energy shortages.

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There's a showdown between market and planned economies.

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Market wins. Goodbye evil Soviet Empire.

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Politicians decide the market will solve everything.

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Personal computers arrive.

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Globalization takes over when the market notices

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labor is cheaper in China.

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Suddenly everyone has a cell phone. But world oil production stalls out.

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China's now burning half the world's coal to make export products.

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But where will China get more coal and oil to fuel more growth?

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Environmental problems everywhere!

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Rising CO2-levels lead to record heat waves,

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floods, droughts. Oceans acidify.

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Top soil erodes by 25 billion tons a year  from industrial agriculture.

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Ancient forests disappear.

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Species go extinct at a thousand times normal rates.

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Fresh water's scarce or polluted.

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Oil companies drill in miles of sea water because the easy oil is gone.

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But a deep water oil platform explodes and fouls the Gulf of Mexico.

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Manufacturing moves to polluting countries where labor is cheap

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while the US becomes a casino.

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The financial sector is forty percent of the economy!

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But Wall Street is over-leveraged.

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Banks fail. Unemployment soars. Credit evaporates!

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The economy is on the verge of collapse!

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Ok, present time. It's amazing how far we've come

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in two hundred years. Just three human lifetimes

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from the beginning of industrialism until now.

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But where are we headed?

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We can't keep doubling human population.

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We can't keep dumping carbon in the atmosphere.

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We can't keep ruining top soil.

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We can't keep growing population and consumption

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or basing our economy on depleting fossil fuels.

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We can't just print more money to solve the debt crisis.

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It's been an exhilarating ride but there are limits.

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No, it's not the end of the world but we have to do four things fast.

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Learn to live without fossil fuels.

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Adapt to the end of economic growth as we've known it.

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Support seven billion humans and

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stabilize population at a sustainable level,

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and deal with our legacy of environmental destruction.

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In short, we have to live within nature's budget

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of renewable resources at rates of natural replenishment.

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Can we do it?

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We have no choice!

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Alternative energy sources are important

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but none can fully replace fossil fuels in the time we have.

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Also, we've designed and built our infrastructure

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for transport, electricity and farming to suit oil, coal and gas.

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Changing to different energy sources will require us to

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redesign cities, manufacturing processes, health care and more.

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We'll also have to rethink some of our cultural values.

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None of our global problems can be tackled in isolation

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and many cannot be fully solved.

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We have to prepare for business as unusual.

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Our best goal is resilience,

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the ability to absorb shocks and keep going.

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If we do nothing, we still get to a post-carbon future

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but it will be bleak.

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However, if we plan the transition,

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we can have a world that supports

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robust communities of healthy, creative people

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and ecosystems with millions of other species.

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One way or the other, we're in for the ride of a lifetime.

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Understand the issues and pitch in.

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It's all hands on deck.

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Post Carbon Institute - www.postcarbon.org

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Narrated by: Richard Heinberg

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Illustrated by: Monstro - www.monstrodesign.com