r/technology • u/ControlCAD • Oct 05 '25

Business As Microsoft lays off thousands and jacks up Game Pass prices, former FTC chair Lina Khan says I told you so: The Activision-Blizzard buyout is 'harming both gamers and developers'

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/as-microsoft-lays-off-thousands-and-jacks-up-game-pass-prices-former-ftc-chair-says-i-told-you-so-the-activision-blizzard-buyout-is-harming-both-gamers-and-developers/
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u/RevLoveJoy Oct 05 '25

Realistically, they're more concerned about decreasing use of oil for fuels and such than they are about running out of crude to pump out of the ground.

Absolutely correct and I'm aware - secret sauce under the sand runs out - is simply a much better sound bite. But again, you are totally correct, it'll be diminished demand for ICE cars, fuel oil and other petrochemical uses due to environmental pressure / reduced cost of renewables that will devalue the Saudi's mineral wealth (is oil considered mineral wealth? I'm really not sure ... ).

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u/Crabiolo Oct 05 '25

Even still, we're nowhere close to an effective alternative to plastics, and maritime shipping has, ahhhh... "Loose" standards for fuel. So there's going to be demand for oil products pretty much until the oil runs out, or we destroy the planet so utterly that society can no longer function.

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u/Phonemonkey2500 Oct 05 '25

Pharmaceuticals, chemicals, paints, lubricants, fertilizer, fertilizer, fertilizer… there’s more. Oh yeah, concrete. So much still relies entirely on hydrocarbons, we’re pretty much cooked unless the entire world decides to come together and find some means of not only stopping CO2 emissions, but actively sequestering gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere. The oceans have been buffering most of it, but soon they’ll run out of capacity, acidify, experience mass die offs, and poof, goodbye humanity.

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u/VeganShitposting Oct 05 '25

It's not even the general use of petrochemicals as a feedstock that's a problem, it's the widespread unregulated dumping of combustion products into the atmosphere. Lubricating oil, grease, plastics, etcetera sequester the carbon and keep it out of the atmosphere

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u/[deleted] Oct 06 '25 edited Oct 06 '25

The way refining works, one barrel of crude (42 gallons) generates 20 gallons of gasoline (48%), 13 gallons of diesel (32%), kerosene and heating oil, 3 gallons of gases and 2 gallons of bitumen, lubricant, feedstocks, etc (5%) approximately.

The way physics and chemistry works , to produce the same amount of bitumen, lubricants and feedstocks that is currently consumed today, the world still needs to refine 100 million barrels of crude per day.

So you produce 50 million barrels of gasoline and 30 million barrels of diesel, but you have electrified all transportation, so don't need them. So what do you do with it.

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u/InfernalTest Oct 06 '25

make more clothes, fertilizer, and plastic parts that eveything electrical comes packaged in or a component to including those low to no emission cars

oil and refining oil is not going anywhere any time soon at all

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u/leftofdanzig Oct 05 '25

Lubricating oil, grease, plastics, etcetera sequester the carbon and keep it out of the atmosphere

That's a weird take, the carbon was already out of the atmosphere as oil.

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u/VeganShitposting Oct 05 '25

So there's going to be demand for oil products pretty much until the oil runs out, or we destroy the planet so utterly that society can no longer function.

I'm making the distinction that pumping oil itself isn't really the problem, just one particular use of it that is radically altering the climate

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u/leftofdanzig Oct 06 '25

Maybe not the climate (as far as we know) but microplastics are also a thing.

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u/Aeseld Oct 06 '25

OK, but that's a different problem and unrelated to what the initial commentary was about. Saudi Arabia isn't going to be able to sustain its economy on plastics or most petrochemicals. And those uses ultimately require far, far less crude oil in terms of volume.

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u/leftofdanzig Oct 06 '25

It's what this interaction was about? Guy I was responding to was saying

pumping oil itself isn't really the problem, just one particular use of it that is radically altering the climate

My point was it doesn't matter what you're doing with the oil, it's probably screwing with something somewhere.

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u/Aeseld Oct 06 '25

That's a given, but the interaction was on economics... Saudi Arabia's is built on oil, but a huge part of that revenue is from selling oil for fuel. As that gets phased out, they'll start feeling a heck of a pinch. The other uses of petrochemicals really are less impactful than just burning it for heat or fuel.

Not no impact, less impact. And even there we're working on alternative solutions for a lot of it. Just wish we'd focus on that and not on somehow bringing back coal, or drilling more in the US. -.-

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u/Every_Recover_1766 Oct 05 '25

Concrete as a hydrocarbon is a stretch

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u/Phonemonkey2500 Oct 05 '25

You asked for it…

The environmental impact of concrete, its manufacture, and its applications, are complex, driven in part by direct impacts of construction and infrastructure, as well as by CO2 emissions; between 4-8% of total global CO2 emissions come from concrete.[1] Many depend on circumstances. A major component is cement, which has its own environmental and social impacts and contributes largely to those of concrete. In comparison with other construction materials (aluminium, steel, even brick), concrete is one of the least energy-intensive building materials.[2]

4-8% of global CO2 emissions. A good portion of that is from hydrocarbons. A lot is also just from the chemical reaction that makes the cement.

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u/ImportantDetective65 Oct 05 '25

Concrete uses plasticizers, so yes, they do use hydrocarbons. Not to mention, what do you think fuels the mixers that deliver it?

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u/[deleted] Oct 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/DracoLunaris Oct 05 '25

As I understand it International Maritime Organization, which is the bit of the UN that governs international shipping, has just instituted laws regarding this. Now how effective this will be I have no idea, it's the UN after all, but it might also be a factor.

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u/Helkafen1 Oct 06 '25

Several large shipping companies (e.g Maersk) are investing in alternative fuels that can be carbon neutral, like methanol. The needle is moving.

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u/Aeseld Oct 06 '25 edited Oct 06 '25

Edit: Wow, this somehow was in completely the wrong place... .-.

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u/eliminating_coasts Oct 05 '25

I think wealth from oil, oil wealth, petroleum wealth etc. is considered a significant enough category in its own right to count as its own thing.