> Cheap here matter more than perfect, since the problem of emitting CO2 from fossil fuel plants is better (but more slowly) solved by phasing out fossil fuel.
The goal is to stop emitting CO2, not phasing out fossil fuels. If you can use fossil fuel without emitting CO2 (and other greenhouse gasses), then the goal is achieved.
But we also know that fossil fuels are finite and it might be worthwhile to stop using them and learn to use alternatives before we get forced to do it when the sources run dry.
For me the most tragic part of the current situation is that if we somehow destroyed our current civilisation, there would be no raw resources to support a new industrial age.
I don't think there are (economical) ways to stop emitting CO2 without phasing out fossil fuels. And like you said, regardless of CO2, fossil fuels will run out anyway.
I wonder if any new civilization could bootstrap off existing knowledge and artifacts about electricity. Wind and water based electricity don't require stupidly complicated tech to get going. You can probably mine copper from ruins rather than mines. Similarly, perhaps current stores of coal and oil could also support some systems for long enough? Heck, I could even imagine old oil wells to be 'easy' to re-open.
In any case, neither I nor my children will be around after we destroy civilization. So I care much more about avoiding the destruction than the ability to rebuild afterwards.
If we somehow destroy our current civilization, then world population will plummet from starvation, especially in the third world that isn't fertilizer-self-sufficient.
And we'll still have plenty of raw coal + recyclable metals.
We won't have any raw coal. All raw coal is hundreds of meters below ground because everything that was easily accessible was already dug.
In my country hundreds of years ago people were gathering coal lying on the ground or picking it with a shovel in small holes. When oil was first found it was basically pooling on the surface or required a very shallow hole, nothing more than a deep water well, to reach.
Not only those, but a lot of other easily available sources have already been completely used up. There might be some that are overlooked in very sparsely populated, hard to reach places like Russia, Brazil or Antarctica. But the same reason why they have not been found and exploited would be why a new attempt at civilisation will also have hard time trying to find it.
The goal is to stop emitting CO2, not phasing out fossil fuels. If you can use fossil fuel without emitting CO2 (and other greenhouse gasses), then the goal is achieved.
But we also know that fossil fuels are finite and it might be worthwhile to stop using them and learn to use alternatives before we get forced to do it when the sources run dry.
For me the most tragic part of the current situation is that if we somehow destroyed our current civilisation, there would be no raw resources to support a new industrial age.