RE: Latest bbc10 Mar 2026 21:07
The issue with oil is that it is used to produce so many other materials that impact every day life. If you walk into a hospital, you see engineering behind everything. Without engineers doctors and nurses only have medicines, potions and shake one's bones. They have no diagnostics infrastructure and kit, limited therapeutic intervention and virtually nothing for rehabilitation than one to one physical interventions. Oil is a component that materially exists in the blood collection tube. It exists in formulations of most medical implants fitted into a human body as a second simple example. Without oil we do not have biocompatible materials of known quantities and qualities that are safe to use. It would take a generation of research to replace everything in the multitude of healthcare pathways for it to be free of carbon and what ever is created from oil. It is not only in healthcare we have these issues as they surround us in many other ways of our living. The government is correct in support greener energies as global populations rise and we need greater energy security. It is naïve however to estimate the length of time to replace oil products and its material impacts that we take for granted. We therefore may need such oil resources for many years to come. Net zero is not the real answer, but net less carbon from a base we were using before is far more realistic on what is achievable and beneficial overall to our quality of life. It is about realistic timing of replacing products and markets and doing so on practicality over political dogma.