Ever wonder how we will replace oil?  Here is how I figure it and I figure we might as well replace coal while we are at it.  These are the real costs:

It will take the lives of millions of people spent working; at all of the projects that added together accomplish that task. It will take social change on the scale of what occurred when we moved from farms to the cities and created the industrial revolution in the wealthiest nations in the world. It will take pride in the work we are doing because it will free human beings from the tyranny of resource limitations in ways they have never been freed before. It will take great attention to detail so we can leave the planet cleaner than we found it. It will take honesty and ethical business practices in all aspects of this new industry. It will also involve chicanery and fraud and recovery from failure. It will take profound respect for the pioneers who built the world we are dismantling and faith in the essential goodness of humanity. It will take trust in the truth and love for our children and grandchildren. It will take selfishness and greed and selfless dedication and sacrifice. It will take pride beyond hubris and honor beyond that of the battlefield. Finally it will take everything we have to give this task and more; that is why it is worthy of the doing. We will pay for this task with the bodies and souls of a generation and when it is done we will need to reinvent the world all over again. That is the nature of humanity. Our works are imperfect and only in striving for perfection can we approach the divine. The bankers will eventually back this project because if we fail to replace oil in time their money will be worth nothing. Entrepreneurs will flock to this project because it is where the interesting work with the prospect of great wealth lies. The people will also accept that this is the new way things ought to be because experience will teach them that is true. Even the oil companies will actually join us in the end and perhaps one or two will buy winning companies in this race. Others will be bought by winning companies for their residual value. The prospect of being involved in this as I get older is both daunting and thrilling. I prefer to face the thrills and turn my back on the trepidation, so will other entrepreneurs. Finally, it is faith in meaning itself that gives life its greatest meaning. Whether that is expressed in faith in God or faith in the divine nature of humanity at its best matters little.

The beautiful little secret known to all entrepreneurs is that only in passing through failure can you succeed. Making a wrong choice is familiar to us all. Not making a decision when one is necessary is as foreign to us as quitting without giving our all.

If your first venture fails, total up your lesions and remember your lessons and start over again. The fun of this all is in the doing not in the spending afterward. Henry Ford said it well, “Invest in yourself, in what you believe in doing.” Take that advice and it will bring you to the future prepared to risk in order to gain. You cannot have one without the other.

Oil companies are going to lose their hold on the fuel economy soon. The process is already beginning and it will accelerate. You are standing on new and very fertile ground like your ancestors who came here for free land and freedom of conscience.

You, we, all of us, will create a world that we would not recognize a hundred years from today. I will not be here to see it but many of you may be here. Our children and grandchildren will perhaps see the dawning of a new century in the year 2100.

The world we bequeath them will be better by far if we take this task to heart and accomplish it. Let’s leave them a planet healed of its wounds and wealthier in both material things and the quality of life for all living things. That will be a work worthy of our love and hope for all of them.