Sys1 wrote:Of course wind and solar can replace oil.
During middle age, we used only wind and solar energy and everything was fine.
Of course, no smartphone, no car, no roads, no skyscrappers, no multi billions of humans, no planes, no trucks, no drinkable water, scarcity of food, no hollidays, no Medicare, no school, no retreat, no money, no clean home, no heat at home, children dying during birth (with mom) and no climate change.
Everything was fine.
A very modern view of the past, life was ugly, short and brutal.
Of course if you made it to 21 you had a pretty good chance of making it to 63 because half of all people died between stillbirth to age 5 and another twenty percent died before becoming 'adult' at 21. Those who did pass through the gauntlet of childhood illnesses and made it to adulthood had the same share of joys and sorrows as are always the case with the human condition. They did not miss smart phones and cars and flying to destinations a thousand miles away to vacation because such things were only the stuff of fairy tales. If we lose all those things then a generation or three down the road they will again be the stuff of legends and won't make a wit of difference to the generations being born at that time.
As for food and water, nobody would have been alive to pass on their genes to the next generation if their had been no potable water and severe food shortages were the norm and not the exception. Also roads were a pretty common part of life. Not twelve lane paved super highways mind you, but roads that went from here to there and allowed most wagons or cargo carts to travel thusly.
You also completely ignored water power, which was much more significant than wind for most of history. The reason so many towns across the world have names like 'Bedford Falls' is because they were advertising they had a significant enough water flow rate to power a mill or even several mills.
They also had heat and cooking and cleaning. Usually wood or dung fueled, but occasionally based on animal fats.
