- Question
- Can we live without oil?
- Position1 of 2›
- Yes, we can live without oil
- Argument1 of 3›
Renewable energy sources can replace oil
Renewable energy sources are an efficient energy source. Instead of oil, renewable energy sources use wind, water, and the sun. Renewable energy sources don’t deplete and is an abundant source of energy.
The argument
The claim is a claim about substitutability: oil performs a function, other things perform the same function, so the function does not require oil. There are sources of energy other than oil, and the ones this argument points to are wind and solar power. What makes them adequate substitutes rather than partial ones is that they are effective in use and renewable in supply. Effectiveness matters because a replacement has to actually do the work — power homes, industry and transport — rather than merely exist as an alternative in principle. Renewability matters because it removes the constraint that defines dependence on oil. A finite resource has to be secured, rationed and eventually replaced whatever anyone's preferences; wind and sunlight arrive without being extracted, which means a system built on them is not on a schedule towards exhaustion. The environmental case runs alongside the practical one and points the same way. Renewable energy is good for the environment, and the immediate reason is what it does not produce: there are no fumes made with renewable fuels. Combustion is the mechanism by which oil delivers energy, and emissions are the by-product of combustion — so a source that generates power without burning anything removes the by-product rather than treating it. That is a difference in kind from making oil use cleaner. Taken together the two considerations answer the question directly. Living without oil would be impossible if oil were doing something nothing else could do, or if the alternatives carried costs as great as oil's. Neither holds, on this account. Wind and solar supply the same service, do so from sources that do not run out, and do so without the emissions that make oil use damaging. Renewable sources can therefore replace oil, and so we can live without it.
Premises
Counter-arguments
The alternative sources of energy aren’t convenient. About 1/5 of the world’s electricity source comes from renewable sources. The demand of oil is so high and renewable sources is so low, it would be crippling to switch to renewable sources now.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P3] The alternative power source don’t produce enough energy to replace oil.