For it turns out oil and other fossil fuels have only ever represented a fraction of the total mass of resources we’re extracting from the earth. For every tonne of fossil fuels, we exploit 6 tonnes of other materials – mostly sand and stone, but also metals, salts and chemicals. Even as we citizens of the ethereal world pare back our consumption of fossil fuels we have redoubled our consumption of everything else. But, somehow, we have deluded ourselves into believing precisely the opposite.
