Arthur Berman: “The Devil is in the Diesel”
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
00:00
How Does Cement Require Petroleum?
Schmiel says that the four pillars of modern civilization are plastic, steel, cement and fertilizer. All four require petroleum to make them happen. Cement making process is very energy intensive: you have to extract just like you extract iron ore from a mine in South Africa or oil from deep in the subsurface. Most of the reasons that we have nearly 8 billion people on planet Earth today is solely because of fertilizer, which is made from petroleum.
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