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In reply to the discussion: Bombshell: Koch-Funded Study Finds ‘Global Warming Is Real’ (...and the cause is human.) [View all]sofa king
(10,857 posts)We already found the easy half of the hydrocarbons in the world, and burned 'em all. That stored energy is forever gone, and no subsequent society--human or other--will ever be able to duplicate the hydrocarbon emissions output we have reached over the past 150 years.
No future society will ever be able to rely on petroleum as a virtually free stored energy source. Future discoveries of it will be too small and too difficult to extract for the volume of consumption we take for granted today to ever again be equaled.
So like it or not, we're the chumps who pushed the shiny red button and kicked off a one-time event which may or may not drive us to extinction. Whatever follows in our wake won't be able to do this again.
That may be the one favor we ever did for future civilizations.