I can still recall the first time, over a decade ago, I saw the famous list of 6,000 familiar domestic products derived exclusively from crude oil and gas. It was stunning and persuasive. More contentious is the common opinion that scientific ingenuity will readily replace those fossil fuel raw materials with novel alternative "natural" feedstocks. As a scientist I lack that faith. My view is simple; remain sceptical about such claimed substitutes until the evidence for success is unequivocal. In particular ignore claims from academia until relevant products are proven in the marketplace.