The Meaning of Life 66
South Africa] more than it would have normally spent,”
the then South African President, P.W. Botha, said. “There
were times when it was reported to me that we had enough
oil for only a week. Just think what we could have done
if we had that R22 billion today... what could have been
done in other areas? But we had to spend it because we
couldn’t bring our motor cars and our diesel locomotives
to a standstill as our economic life would have collapsed.”^40
Someone who also inspired Elon that the energy field
is important was again Isaac Asimov. He was negative to
the world’s future. In an interview from 1980, he thought
the probability that our civilization will survive more than
another 30 years is less than 50 percent as both our energy
and food supplies will decrease. “Terrorism will also be-
come a way of life in a world marked by severe shortages,”
Asimov said. “Finally, some government will be bound to
decide that the only way to get what its people need is to
destroy another nation and take its goods... by pushing the
nuclear button.”^455
Elon realized that the largest single problem faced by
humanity is sustainable production and consumption of
energy. “If we don’t solve that in this century, we’re in
deep trouble,” Elon said.^63 Each human living on this planet
consumes on average nearly nine times as much energy as
in 1850. More than 80 percent of this energy is provided
by fossil fuels, and the problem with fossil fuels is that the
world is running out of them.^42
In 1859, we drilled the world’s first oil well in Titusville,
US. It had a depth of 66 feet [20 m]. From these first wells,