World Must Continue To Extract Oil And Gas In Order To Sustain Civilisation: Elon Musk

Elon Musk said that one of the biggest challenges the world has ever faced is the transition to sustainable energy and to a sustainable economy

Two weeks ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted saying that civilisation will be mostly solar-powered in the future.

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Tesla Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and SpaceX Founder Elon Musk has said that the world must continue to extract oil and gas in order to sustain civilisation, the Reuters reported.

According to the report, Musk, while stressing on the point to extract more oil and gas, said that the world must also develop sustainable sources of energy.

Musk, on the sidelines of an energy conference in Stavanger, Norway, said, “Realistically I think we need to use oil and gas in the short term, because otherwise civilisation will crumble.”

When the reporters asked him that if Norway should continue to drill for oil and gas, Musk said: "I think some additional exploration is warranted at this time."

"One of the biggest challenges the world has ever faced is the transition to sustainable energy and to a sustainable economy," he said. "That will take some decades to complete." He said offshore wind power generation in the North Sea, combined with stationary battery packs, could become a key source of energy.

"It could provide a strong, sustainable energy source in winter," he added.

He also voiced concerns over birth rates, echoing remarks he made in a Twitter post late last week on the risks of "population collapse".

"One of my less obvious things to be concerned about is the birth rate, and I think its important that people have enough babies to support civilisation so that we don't dwindle away," Musk said.

However, two weeks ago, the Tesla CEO said that civilisation will be mostly solar-powered in the future.

Musk, in a tweet, said that almost all of Earth's energy comes from the Sun. “We would be a dark iceball at near absolute zero if not for the Sun. And essentially the entire ecosystem is solar-powered,” he said, while adding, “Civilisation uses a tiny amount of energy by comparison. Not hard to generate from wind/solar.”

The Tesla CEO was bullish on solar energy and runs the Tesla Solar vertical and that provides panels for rooftops, along with energy storage solutions.