It Is Very Difficult to Quit Fossil Oil and Coal, Here’s The Reason Why
The majority of people think fossil energy is cheap, effective, and accessible, but blinded by the hidden cost behind it.
Humanity now relies so much on fossil fuel and coal, even at the expense of our homeland. Ever since the Industrial Revolution in 1760, fossils have contributed a lot on emitting Carbon Dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere, worsening climate change. On a daily basis, we can see the greenhouse effect when the temperature massively increases, the glacier is gone and water shows up from the ground, also burning forests become unstoppable nowadays. The direct impact of this for humans is deadly pollution in the air and even toxic water supply for our family. Other than that, dangerous residue from burning coal, known as coal ash contains hazardous residues like mercury, cadmium, and arsenic which with improper management can lead you to cancer.
Actually, there is a lot of progress in mankind about environmental awareness. We were taught about environmental impurity in Biology Class. When opening Instagram or Tiktok, we might find environmentalists sharing their zero waste action through infographic posts and short videos. Big corporations start using green technology e.g Solar and Wind Harvesting Technology, using Biodegradable Food Container, also using Pollution Control Technology. In Television News, we heard Greta Thurnberg’s speech persuade people to join Schools Strike for Climate activism. Unfortunately, those numerous progress are still not enough to make people stop the usage of fossil oil and coal. Meanwhile fossil fuel remains the biggest source of Carbon Dioxide emissions in this decade.
Here are 3 reasons why people are unable to move on from fossils in the short term.
Industrial Revolution Push Everyone to use Fossils
Let’s look back at our history book, and discover what happens in 1760. The transition period from traditional-human based manufacturing process to mechanization industry using steam. It is a big step for corporations to produce better quality with more quantity, but less production time needed. From textile to transportation industry switch their manufacturing process to automation. Unfortunately, At the beginning of Industrial Revolution 1.0, chimney’s filter technology has not been discovered. Because of that, thick fumes from combustion contaminate the sky, make it really dark. There are so many harms of those toxic smokes for human’s respiratory health.
But having respiratory disease does not stop enterprises from using automation. The CEOs are blinded with profit margin from low production cost. Companies also do not need to hire a lot of casual laborers and keep the money to their own pocket. That is why it is impossible to quit the industrial revolution. Other alternatives then came, researchers started to think about combustion waste management. In 1907, a chemistry professor named Frederick Gardner Cottrell created an innovation called the Cottrell Electrostatic Precipitator which can remove dust particles from industrial waste gases.
Therefore, society cannot move on from the Industrial Revolution until now. We have passed so many phases of revolution i.e The Technological Revolution 2.0, The Digital Revolution 3.0, and even The Automation Revolution 4.0. We might not blame the revolutionaries because we are benefitted from it. For example technological advancement helps our life, increases our productivity, and even opens so many new job vacancies which we cannot imagine beforehand. Based on the data of the International Labour Organization, nearly 6 millions people in this world work in the oil and gas industry. Many of them are blue collar workers with less education. When we do a sudden replacement of fossil oil and coal, those working class people are prone to unemployment and unable to fulfill their daily necessities. The conclusion is that the sudden decrease of fossil usage will hurt so many people, especially someone whose income depends on it.
Huge Entry Barrier of Renewable Energy Technology
First and the most visible one, the financial barrier of individuals. Eco friendly tools are really expensive in nature. One of the capital costs to develop renewable energy are the expenses of building installation of solar and wind farms. The cost to build solar technology ranged from $2000/kW until $3700/kW. On the comparison, the production cost of natural gas energy extraction is only around $1000/kW. The producer still wants to maintain profit and set a high price. Additionally, many developing countries do not have adequate technology yet to develop green technology, thus rely on importing machines from industrialised countries which have huge transaction costs. With low purchasing power, therefore, only few people can afford to buy an electric car, solar water heater and wind turbine.
Second of all, there are social barriers which hamper households to switch into renewable technology. Renewable energy is deemed unreliable and cannot fulfill people’s needs on a daily basis. There is a misconception that renewable energy depends on unpredictable weather. It is subject to when the sun or wind comes and how much power we can regenerate at that time. Moreover, lack of education is also an obstacle. For example, the majority of people in Rural Indonesian and Sub-Saharan African lack pedagogy, resulting in the shortfall of environmental awareness. Based on the data from World Value Supply 2008, it is shown that the higher education of a person, the more likely they are to express and care about environmental concerns. That is because education encourages individuals to do environmental protection, using energy more efficiently, also recycling waste. In technical aspects, most people in the Sub-City District also had no knowledge on how to operate the appliance and do the maintenance. These factors combine together and slow down the process of Sustainable Energy development and distribution.
Last but not least, different geographical conditions also become a challenge. Not all places on this earth have enough solar light supply. Norway for instance, only gets sunlight in six months for a year. It is impossible for the population to fully transition to solar panels since the intensity is very truncated. When it comes to fossil oil, it is relatively easy to do export and import to fulfill world global supply. Especially with the boost technology of mining explorations, it is easier to track which areas are rich in oil. Many investors come to fund oil extractions in the soil and even deep sea mining.
The Biggest Reason among Others, Political Reasons
Lack of people awareness towards environmental issues makes it harder for politicians who want to implement green policy win an election. For instance, The Green Party in the USA and UK has tried several attempts to campaign eco-friendly policy in numerous areas. But, in view of the fact that only few people are willing to vote, they lose in the election. Having no seat in the parliament means it is less likely for the draft to pass the legislative. It is also an open possibility for the party to stop advocating Environmental Friendly Policy because we have failed to reach popular support and are shackled by oblivious people out there.
Being reliant on the incumbent government to pass policy like Green New Deal is also really uncertain. In some countries like Indonesia and China, they tend to prioritize economic growth over stricter environmental regulation which is sometimes contradictory. If we look at the case of Multinational Mining Company in Indonesia, the government has loosen the statute to do exploitation. MNCs freely take natural resources as much as possible and leave the ex-mining areas with no reclamation. Most of the time, Environmental policy being overcloud by other issues e.g. COVID 19, Global Economic Recession, and Black Lives Matters. Without a significant push for the government to put stricter law, the country will remain the same, unaware of the destruction that is already happening.
The Conclusion
“Environmental Pollution is an incurable disease. It can only be prevented.”
~Barry Commoner
When you open the window and breathe in today, you cannot turn the clock’s needle counterclockwise. It is impossible to go back to the era where Industrial Revolution does not exist, the air is still clean and butterflies still play around in the flower. For now, the best choice that we can make is to prevent it from getting worse. Try to decrease fossil fuels usage a little bit and start investing in Green Technology Products if you can, you might be able to see the sky is brighter than yesterday. With communal commitment, trust me, environmental damage prevention will work!
Written by : Retno Wulandari
A law student at Universitas Gadjah Mada interested in critical thinking and personal growth.
