Let’s place yourself 300 years in the future; of course all energy requirements of the human population will be based on sunlight converted to electricity to energize transport and infotainment toys; sunlight converted to food to energize our bodies and sunlight converted to wood to clean our air and build our homes and nobody can even imagine that there have been times that energy-carriers like electricity, food or wood were ever harvested or used in a different way.
Our children one day will come home horrified and a bit in disbelieve about the crazy stories they heard during their history lessons about their ancestors; stories about a time long ago when people were burning all kinds of materials to access energy. The teachers talk about this time as the “Alternative Energy Age” during which 99.9999% of the population was suffering from energy illiteracy…. The end of the alternative energy age was an absolutely horrifying period due to the environmental destruction and food and water shortages. People started burning their absolute last resources like the tires of their cars to cook their foods and at the end even burned their houses because nothing else was left to burn. Enormous food shortage at the end of the alternative energy age caused up to 90% of the population to die due to rioting over the last food and water resources and illnesses caused by the heavily poluted environments.
Your son asks you…..how could people be so stupid? It is so obvious that the sun is the only source of energy that will never run out; why coudn't the people see that?
Since you were also born after the “alternative energy age” and did not really like history lessons; you just answer….I don’t know my son; maybe people did not have internet or search engines yet!
Good night and sleep well….
Sweet dreams