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.

WTF?

I predicted that Ronald Stein would be the author or co-author of this article before I clicked on it.

I was not disappointed by my prediction.

Nor was a disappointed in my prediction that this article would read like a year 9 text book as they always seem to do.

Just who the audience for Ronald Stein's articles are I'll never know.

No adult I have ever met does not understands the benefits derived from the fossil fuel industry.

In untypical fashion, however, Ronald Stein does not use this article to bash the renewable energy sector. Maybe he is starting to learn after all.

What the author finds hard to understand is that benefits derived from fossil fuels make them far too valuable a resource to waste on electricity generation and where applicable transportation.

It's time for him to move on and start writing articles for an adult (non-U.S.?) audience.