Elon Musk says the world needs more oil, gas, and babies

[midian182]

What just happened? It's hard to imagine Elon Musk, the man behind electric vehicle giant Tesla, calling for the world to find more oil and gas, but he believes such things are necessary for survival and the transition to renewable energies. The world's richest person also revealed his hope that Tesla's self-driving tech will be ready and receive widespread release by the end of the year, and he issued a warning about falling birth rates, a subject Musk is passionate about.

Musk made his comments at an energy conference in Norway, where he said his attention was currently focused on his SpaceX spacecraft and self-driving Tesla vehicles.

"The two technologies I am focused on, trying to ideally get done before the end of the year, are getting our Starship into orbit [...] and then having Tesla cars to be able to do self-driving", he said via Reuters.

Musk also spoke about fossil fuels, insisting that he was not someone who demonizes them. Europe is experiencing record energy prices as Russia lowers its gas deliveries to the continent. "Realistically I think we need to use oil and gas in the short term, because otherwise civilization will crumble," he said, adding that "we must have a clear path to a sustainable energy future."

Tesla's self-driving technology was another subject Musk visited. The CEO is focused on having fully self-driving Tesla cars on sale by year-end with a wide release in the US and Europe, providing the tech receives regulatory approval. The comments come after Musk this month said Tesla's FSD beta software price would rise for the second time this year to $15,000 in North America.

One person who isn't a fan of FSD is Dan O'Dowd, founder of the Dawn Project and CEO of Green Hills Software. He's behind a viral ad showing the vehicles running over child-sized mannequins while in FSD mode. It resulted in a cease-and-desist letter from Tesla, which O'Dowd has responded to by calling Musk a "crybaby."

In addition to oil and gas, Musk believes the world needs more babies. He warned that low birth rates are a danger to civilization and that it's "one of my favorite […] things to be concerned about."

(And I do think global warming is a major risk)

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 26, 2022

"They say civilization might die with a bang or with a whimper," added Musk. "If we don't have enough kids, then we will die with a whimper in adult diapers. And that will be depressing."

I mean, I'm doing my part haha

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 14, 2022

Musk has nine children, including twins he secretly fathered with a top executive from his AI startup Neuralink last year. The billionaire previously said he is "doing my part" in increasing the world's population.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/95792-elon-musk-world-needs-more-oil-gas-babies.html

 

[VitalyT]

Elon Musk says the world needs more oil, gas, and babies

I think that's misquoted, and what he actually said was -

Let's get some oil/lube, and make babies, it'll be a gas!

 

[BadThad]

I'm all for green energy but implemented at a pace commensurate with the advancement of said technology. It is in NO POSITION to eliminate petroleum products at this point in history. Trying to cram green energy down our throats will result in massive negative consequences like we're seeing today.

 

[Reallyhow]

Hey Rob, could we perhaps hold ourselves to a higher journalistic standard than misquoting Musk for double duty clickbait?

 

[FaTaL]

More oil and gas ? yes. no to more babies. world is fcking overpopulated

 

[bviktor]

Musk interview:

"Realistically I think we need to use oil and gas in the short term, because otherwise civilization will crumble"

Techspot headline:

"Elon Musk says the world needs more oil, gas"

Ok.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

I'm all for green energy but implemented at a pace commensurate with the advancement of said technology. It is in NO POSITION to eliminate petroleum products at this point in history. Trying to cram green energy down our throats will result in massive negative consequences like we're seeing today.

Agreed, the market will transition to the best energy source automatically in order to make society as productive as possible. Renewable sources are improving in cost & efficiency while oil and gas are close to their peak efficiencies. Its inevitable that the market will switch over gradually when the timing is right.

Musk interview:

"Realistically I think we need to use oil and gas in the short term, because otherwise civilization will crumble"

Techspot headline:

"Elon Musk says the world needs more oil, gas"

Ok.

True there’s more to it, but the article does state that. It’s a clickbait-y headline but I’ve seen worse considering Elon has already said similar things.

 

[terzaerian]

Agreed, the market will transition to the best energy source automatically in order to make society as productive as possible. Renewable sources are improving in cost & efficiency while oil and gas are close to their peak efficiencies. Its inevitable that the market will switch over gradually when the timing is right.

If that were the case we'd be an almost all-nuclear society as it trounces both fossil fuels and renewables for sheer output and efficiency, but fear-mongering has been allowed to poison the well

 

[Endymio]

More oil and gas ? yes. no to more babies. world is fcking overpopulated

More babies is a good thing ... as long as they grow into productive adults, of course. Many industrialized nations are already struggling with low birthrate issues: Japan, South Korea, and many European countries aren't even having enough children to maintain their current population, much less see healthy growth.

Environmentalist have sold the overpopulation myth for far too long. More people is a good thing -- more doctors, more artists and entertainers, more scientists and engineers. By doing no more than expanding first-world agriculture to the entire planet, we can easily feed a population more than double the current level. Throw in future technological advances, and the planet may well support 60 or 70 billion of us.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

If that were the case we'd be an almost all-nuclear society as it trounces both fossil fuels and renewables for sheer output and efficiency, but fear-mongering has been allowed to poison the well

In a truly free market, it would be the case. The government getting involved (ie. adding regulation, taxes, subsidies, etc.) is different from the free market.

 

[psycros]

If that were the case we'd be an almost all-nuclear society as it trounces both fossil fuels and renewables for sheer output and efficiency, but fear-mongering has been allowed to poison the well

Battery technology is still the 800 pound gorilla, though. The electric future lives or dies by charging speed and storage capacity. So far its not looking too bright. Of course, we're already seeing a lot of moaning about how much power is used just by crypto farms. Electric vehicles will use magnitudes more electricity than that.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

More oil and gas ? yes. no to more babies. world is fcking overpopulated

From the point of view of an entire planet, yes.

From the point of a country, no. The first world's birth rate is still declining, and the social programs like social security, medicaid, ece run off of the tax revenue of the working class. If you dont have kids you have to import them, but the importation of workers and families from other countries creates cultural and social unrest. Many industrialized nations are struggling with this.

Endymio beat me to the punch.

I'm all for green energy but implemented at a pace commensurate with the advancement of said technology. It is in NO POSITION to eliminate petroleum products at this point in history. Trying to cram green energy down our throats will result in massive negative consequences like we're seeing today.

Much like the EPA's emissions regulations in the 70s, the government is rushing headlong into new regulations with 0 understanding of how they will impact the lives of its citizens. Except this one is going beyond making cars a bit slow and involves a fundamental shift in power production and how we are able to move about the country.

 

[axiomatic13]

Speaking as an owner of a small oil and gas company in Texas. If you aren't already far down the road planning your transition to green technologies, you are going to be left behind. I have already secured permits for where I will place windmills on my property and I've already put solar on my roof and wrote it off as research on my taxes. One other point, no POTUS ever has had any effect on my prices. I need $3 gas at the pump to break even. The big O&G companies that get federal subsidies can go down to around $1.75 and still make a profit. Why is gas not $2? Greed.

 

[maroon1]

World need babies with good traits (like high IQ), not any babies

 

[umbala]

World need babies with good traits (like high IQ), not any babies

Is that why you got that vasectomy? haha

 

[RudyBob]

Used to call it an energy crisis...that wore thin because there is plenty of energy and they know it so they had to change it to climate change after a few failed name iterations, of course.

 

[Mister_K]

More oil and gas ? yes. no to more babies. world is fcking overpopulated

Actually it's not, it's widely unoptimized. Everyone wants their big house and a garden.

 

[Nobina]

Elon gives me some of his money and I'll make sure we have more babies.

 

[ET3D]

More people is a good thing -- more doctors, more artists and entertainers, more scientists and engineers.

What percentage of the population are doctors, scientists and engineers? Not to mention that the reason a large number of these are required is the large population size. In short, not a very convincing argument.

 

[Lounds]

We definitely need higher birth rates to pay for our pensions amongst other things that most of us take for granted in modern society. The issue is it doesn't pay to have children, I think if free child care was given to fully time working parents up until the age they can go to school then that would help the low birth rate. Currently families can't afford to have children and even if they can, it'll likely be the 1 when ideally you should have 2 as that's an income to pay for your future as well.

 

[p51d007]

Yeah, but the WEF/globalist want LESS people. I think it is ironic these clowns that want
fewer people, less "carbon footprint" are the same ones that run around in their fancy private
jets, going to their MULTIPLE mansions and on and on.
With FEWER people, less oil/gas, who the H*LL do they think is going to produce all of the
stuff they need to continue their fancy lifestyle? Robots?

 

[trparky]

With FEWER people, less oil/gas, who the H*LL do they think is going to produce all of the
stuff they need to continue their fancy lifestyle? Robots?

Yep. They want the world all to themselves.

 

[Loli Pop Carbon]

Why are we still giving our attention to this clown?

 

[waclark]

If that were the case we'd be an almost all-nuclear society as it trounces both fossil fuels and renewables for sheer output and efficiency, but fear-mongering has been allowed to poison the well

Unfortunately, that's not the market speaking. That's government regulations built around, as you say, fear-mongering.

 

[Kinemon]

From the point of view of an entire planet, yes.

From the point of a country, no. The first world's birth rate is still declining, and the social programs like social security, medicaid, ece run off of the tax revenue of the working class. If you dont have kids you have to import them, but the importation of workers and families from other countries creates cultural and social unrest. Many industrialized nations are struggling with this.

Endymio beat me to the punch.
Much like the EPA's emissions regulations in the 70s, the government is rushing headlong into new regulations with 0 understanding of how they will impact the lives of its citizens. Except this one is going beyond making cars a bit slow and involves a fundamental shift in power production and how we are able to move about the country.

Well instead of regulating things then we can use the carrot and subsidize renewables to make it more attractive until technology takes care of that itself.

We already subsidize oil.. and staple grains, and dairy, and probably renewables too.

So tell me, why subsidize oil if the goal is to move away from it. If you just stop subsidizing oil and heavily subsidize renewables, then Industry will take care of the problem itself because it becomes more profitable to use renewables.

In a capitalist country we should be using the power of the free market to get things like this done.

Why did we have so much oil under trump? It's because for a year or so, the cost of extracting shale became less expensive than liquid oil to produce a barrel.

The USA has GIANT shale oil reserves, and it sparked a new oil rush. Once the price of oil went down, shale became too expensive to extract and the entire industry died. Of course Trump takes credit for these low oil prices, but it was really just good luck for him to be president when shale took off.