Stagnant

Something in the beginning of the section stood out to me.  On page 174 it says that “For six generations, the burning of coil, oil, and natural gas transformed human society and fueled the development of modern civilization.”

That’s kind of bizarre to think about, no?  These non-renewable resources have allowed us to push the limits of technology and have allowed us to progress and discover new things.  It has allowed us to create a new way of life essentially.  We’ve grown a dependency on it to the point where companies are not willing to give it up despite knowing its consequences.  These resources fueling advancement is not the bizarre part.

The bizarre part is that the same resources that have pushed us forward, are the same ones that’ll hold us back and keep us stagnant.  We wont be able to progress as efficiently because we would’ve used all of the coil, oil, and natural gas.  We won’t be able to progress as efficiently because these resources created air pollution in the atmosphere.  We won’t be able to progress as efficiently because the world will be turned upside down.

For centuries upon centuries we’ve focused so much on moving forward that it will eventually cause us to be halted, and even pushed back toward primitive life.  We’ll be that one kid that is trying to swim upstream when all the forces are pushing us back while we have no one to blame but ourselves because we won’t stop and acknowledge the problem.  We’ll be stagnant.