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Surur t1_irzonbc wrote

If you think about it, unless those things get burnt they are actually a form of carbon sequestration.

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tacofiller t1_is02bgo wrote

Not if you consider the carbon was already sequestered in natural crude oil deposits. Once you take that into account you have to consider the energy required to explore, drill, transport the oil, the energy required to refine it, convert it to plastics, ship the plastics, manufacture the toys, ship the toys to distribution centres, then ship to retail and/or dtc.

Also think of creating and maintaining the infrastructure around all the shipping and manufacturing, the manufacture of shipping vehicles, the mining and energy that went into all of that... and the layers/“generations” of manufacturing and raw material shipping and extraction that went into all that.

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Surur t1_is06cog wrote

When we fully electrify (and move to renewables) then the carbon cost of mining and manufacturing would not matter.

Then oil would be just another raw mineral.

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tacofiller t1_is9uc44 wrote

True, at that point in the distant future (10+ years to get to that point?) extracting oil or anything else should be CO2 neutral. Natural gas would always be an externality though, as it escapes during extraction and processing.

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