But after the crisis ended, you could see how the society had adapted itself to the new conditions. While US as a whole became 32 percent more oil-efficient, vehicles became 50 percent more oil-efficient. To set an example, the former US President Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the top of the White House. “A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken,” Carter said. America chose the latter when the solar panels disappeared during President Ronald Reagan. The panels were not installed again until Barack Obama became the President.43
Another energy crisis took place in Cuba. After the fall of the Soviet Union and after an increased blockade by US, Cuba couldn’t import oil and entered a period known as the Special Period. Blackouts could last for sixteen hours a day, and they had to rope buckets with water to the top of the tallest buildings. As an act of desperation, they imported 1.2 million bicycles from China and the Cubans themselves manufactured 500 000 more.44
But in a similar way as after the 1973 energy crisis, the Cuban society adapted to these new conditions. It became common to hitchhike and government cars were required to pick up anyone who wanted a ride. The Cubans developed the Camel truck with a capacity to carry 300 people. In small towns, the Cubans used horses and mules to transport goods. They ate less, and they walked and biked across the country, so the average Cuban lost 12 pounds [6 kg]. This healthier lifestyle decreased the number of heart attacks, diabetes, and strokes. Solar panels were too expensive for most households, but 2000 schools were equipped with them.44,45
Peak oil and global warming are often confused with each other. There’s an owner of an electric car who has a bumper stick on his car saying, “Environmentalists took money from the poor to pay me to buy this car.”206 But it doesn’t matter whether global warming is a hoax or not – what matters is that we are running out of oil. Elon has always been someone who’s a big fan of facts, and peak oil is a fact. “It’s not like there’s some infinite oil supply,” Elon said. “If there was hypothetically no environment or national-security issue, and all the oil in the world was in the US, we would still need to find a sustainable mode of transport because the oil will run out, and there will be economic collapse. We will run out of even the fracking resources.”363,366,433
Before we run out of oil, we have to save at least some of it. “I think we should be saving our oil resources for the future when we really need it and make sure that it’s applied for the highest use in the economy, which would be things like pharmaceuticals and plastics production,” Elon said. “We shouldn’t really be burning the stuff in our cars. It’s pretty valuable as an industrial ingredient.”433
So the first reason why we need a sustainable energy economy is peak oil. The second reason is environmental reasons. A world without oil will be cleaner than a world with oil, but a world without any fossil fuels is the best alternative. Elon is not a fan of global warming since it’s a dumb experiment. “They often say ‘How do we know for certain that CO2 emissions cause global warming?’” Elon asked. “If you ask a scientist ‘Do you know anything for certain?’ they generally say ‘No we don’t know for certain, we don’t know anything for certain’ But the overwhelming opinion of the scientific community is that the CO2 is causing global warming. Given that we will run out of oil anyway, it doesn’t make any sense to put trillions of tonnes of CO2 in the atmosphere and see what happens, which could be catastrophic. It’s just a dumb experiment.”341
The CO2 experiment is comparable to the cigarette experiment. It was popular on Earth several years ago, and some are still participating in it. “In the early days of smoking they used to think that smoking was fine,” Elon said. “This link between lung cancer and smoking was completely ridiculous. They had like pregnant women in ads smoking. It was difficult to prove an exact link. Everyone that smoked didn’t get lung cancer. 99 percent of the scientists thought that smoking is bad for your health. The smoking lobby would say ‘Scientists disagree.’”
To accelerate the transition from a society dependent on fossil fuels, Europe has a tax on petrol that favors fuel-efficient vehicles. Elon wished the US had a similar tax.66 “Even though I’ve got companies trying to address the problem, I drive cars, I use more electricity than I should,” Elon said. “It’s tough to tell people you’re causing long-term harm to the world, and even if you don’t pay the penalty, your children or grandchildren will. So essentially we need to tax it, the way we tax cigarettes and alcohol, for the public good.”316
Another way to accelerate the transition from a society dependent on fossil fuels is to have stronger incentives for solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro energy. Nuclear power, which is a cleaner alternative than coal or gas, can be an alternative. “It’s [nuclear] the lesser of the evils – not ultimately the best. But not wise for California,” Elon said. Because California is in an earthquake zone, it’s a less good area for the construction of nuclear power plants.66
What we need is a complete system of both sustainable power generation and consumption. But we tend to prioritize smaller solutions, such as recycling of garbage. “Recycling of garbage and stuff like that is important but pales in significance to having sustainable clean power generation and consumption,” Elon said. “The world is not going to die because of Coke bottles.”452
Largely because of the financial crisis that began in 2008, several concerned citizens have begun to prepare for a collapse of our society. This is not something new as it has happened several times before. The investor Warren Buffett’s father, Howard Buffett, lost faith in the US dollar and bought gold and a farm to prepare for a collapse of the financial markets.65
Buffett is a person Elon admires.326 The Giving Pledge is a philanthropic campaign by Buffett and Bill Gates, and Elon is one of twelve billionaires who has signed it and will give at least half of his wealth to charity. “Just signed giving pledge with eleven others. I hope this announcement convinces others to do the same,” Elon said.56
Preparing for unexpected events is generally a good idea. After the Hurricane Katrina in 2005, everyone saw how difficult it was for a government to help a large amount of people in need. But some take this preparation to the extreme, and the reality series Doomsday Preppers popularized it. The series shows US citizens who are preparing for everything between heaven and earth, including a collapse of the financial market, a nuclear war, and a worldwide pandemic.64
The preppers, as they call themselves, buy large amounts of weapons and food. While some preppers construct large underground bunkers and defenses, others rebuild old military trucks to be able to escape into the wilderness. Some believe hiding out in the middle of the ocean is the only way to survive, so they prepare large boats. One planned to escape from the US to safety in the jungles of Costa Rica.
Entire industries have grown up to help people prepare. One company specialized in building bunkers with flushing toilets, hot water, and surveillance cameras. To build these bunkers, that could be hidden four floors below the ground, they hire workers from another area to make sure no one except the owner of the bunker will get to it if something happens. Another company specialized in training people how to escape by foot from New York to a safer place.