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Since modern people are using way too much energy, a large quantity of energy IS required to meet the demand and hence a lot more facilities must be set up to keep up. Setting these facilities up cost a lot of money and (my prediction) not many countries will want or can afford to set these facilities up. (This point will be extended later). The other reason why it is not possible for it to replace fossil feels is that renewable energy is not reliable. It relays heavily on the weather condition, rain, sunshine, wind etc.
These heather condition is something that people cannot control, without sunshine, solar panels cannot generate energy. Without wind, wind mills is not able to generate energy. When there is a drought, hydro electric plants are not capable of generating energy, and the same applies to all of the renewable energy. This means that the energy generation rate is not constant and cannot be trusted. Secondly, even though the third industrial revolution states that it benefits everyone, some countries may not like it.
The second industrial revolution rates a top down model, which puts the countries that have more elite power (fossil feel) on top and countries that lacks elite power (fossil feels) on the bottom. Third industrial revolution is planned to shatter this top down model and setting these developed countries back. This benefits the developing countries and harm the developed countries or countries that have a lot of fossil feels. Since the developed countries already spent so much money on building the power plants and mines that harvests fossil feels, replacing them with renewable power will set these countries back.
However, evildoing countries, who haven’t spent much resources on harvesting fossil feels can have a huge advantage since all countries are starting fresh on this technology and this may be the chance for them to catch up. It is proven that, in terms of individual benefits, money distribution, and politically, the developed countries will be surely be against the third industrial revolution. Since those top down models have been continued for quite a long time, the countries on top had already accumulated a lot of resources and money, making these countries have more control over the other.
As I mentioned earlier, It is possible that the third industrial revolution cannot begin because these countries disproves this idea. Even though this may cause disasters and a war may break out, it is still a possibility and must be considered. Moreover, even though Jeremy Riffing states that there is no plan B in his conclusion of the third industrial revolution idea, I disagree. There are still a lot that humans haven’t discovered, elements, matters, outer space… It is always possible that humans discovered something that would solve the energy crisis.
For example, there are chances that people will invent machines that converts carbon dioxide into energy, converting the sun’s energy or maybe machines that would improve the energy efficiency, making us the energy consumption rate so low that it can continue forever. To sum up, I believe it is not necessary correct to say that the third industrial is inevitable because of various reasons, when the fossil fuels runs out, people are forced to find another alternative source of energy; but the solution don’t have to be the third industrial revolution, with the flaws of knowable energy, and relies on the unpredictable variable – weather.