That there is simply no way that the earth can support 7.4 billion people without concentrated, compact, transportable energy supply which is only satisfied by hydrocarbons. Without the Oil & Gas industry the earth can support about 1 billion people. With the industry 7.4 billion is no problem.
People in the industrialized countries spend about 0.25–2 hours/day providing for the energy needs of their families (food, heat, light, energy for cooking, water). In subsistence economies about 36 hours of effort is required every day to meet the needs of a family of 4. If you can’t transport food to market more efficiently than animal power, cities become largely unsustainable.
The most misunderstood fact about the industry that so many people vilify is that without it they would stand a 1 in 7 chance of actually being alive, and if they were alive they would be far too busy trying to obtain food, water, and fuel to be complaining about frac’ing or pipelines.
The second most misunderstood thing is that crude oil and natural gas are NATURAL substances. They come from the earth and virtually all of the biogenic hydrocarbons that have ever been on earth have leaked out of source rock into the atmosphere. Microbes have evolved to live on these natural substances, and an oil spill is not ever an “ecological disaster” it is simply messy and smelly for a little while until nature gets it back toward balance. Something on the order of 1 million points on the earth (mostly in the seas) have been identified as sources of hydrocarbon seeps. You’ve probably heard of the LaBrea Tar Pits, the Santa Barbara Channel seeps, Canadian Tar Sands? All of these places represent natural hydrocarbons coming to the surface. Water fowl got messy with crude eons before the Exxon Valdez, or even the invention of Dawn Dishwashing detergent. And they will get messy with crude eons after the last man dies out.
