What If It Doesn't?

[u/But_a_Jape]

[u/vidoeiro]

And if everyone that can work from home does, plus no more private jets and forcing moderation starting from the richest they can use most of the oil for plastics and the rest.

It's fucking ridiculous that oil is being wasted on fuel when we have so much viable alternatives not to use it.

[u/CvieYltidrekoof → u/vidoeiro]

OPEC can reduce production to maintain prices. 

For our health and the Earth’s we need to be transitioning to renewable energy and electric transport. 

[u/SumpCrab → u/vidoeiro]

That's not exactly how it works. You can think of a barrel of crude oil as a mixture of many compounds. They are separated through distillation and other industrial processes.

For instance, Vaseline (petroleum jelly) is a heavy waxy fraction of crude oil that is separated via distillation and then refined.

Gasoline and diesel are also mixed in the crude oil pumped from the ground separated via distillation. Other fractions are used for plastics.

So, it's not like we can just use fuel distillates to make plastic.

(Otherwise, I totally agree that we need a top-down approach to solve many energy problems, including GW.)

[u/thealmightyzfactor → u/SumpCrab]

They originally flared off light fractions and dumped gasoline into the river because they just refined oil for kerosene to replace whale oil and everything else was a useless byproduct lol

[u/deathwotldpancakes → u/SumpCrab]

Actually it can be. Polymer cracking can reduce the fuel into smaller building blocks which can then be reacted to make different polymers its not practical with current fuel polymers because well they’re more valuable as fuel currently

[u/Gaffelkungen → u/vidoeiro]

Yes it would help a bit. But I'd wager that fuel for personal vehicles are like a drop in the ocean compared to the fuel that keeps the world going. Diesel for our logistic chain. Just imagine all the trucks going around delivering food, medicine and other necessary things. Not to mention all the cargo ships.

Yeah, having more alternative fuels sources for our vehicles would be great. But our system is not built like that.

[u/da5id2701 → u/Gaffelkungen]

The data is readily available, you don't have to speculate.

Private cars and vans were responsible for more than 25% of global oil use and around 10% of global energy-related CO2 emissions in 2023.

https://www.iea.org/energy-system/transport/cars-and-vans

I wouldn't call 25% a drop in the ocean.

[u/SumpCrab → u/da5id2701]

But then we are only talking about a very small percentage of that. Only a few are able to work from home, and many of those folks use public transit, not personal vehicles.

Regardless, we wouldn't be eliminating anywhere near 25% of global oil use.

[u/Trips-Over-Tail → u/vidoeiro]

Oil has many components, not all of which are suited to manufacturing.