Oil #5: Imagine A World Without Oil

Credit: Douglas Eberhardt for NPR

On today's show, we follow the Planet Money oil to the end of the line.

And we ask: What would the world be like if fossil fuels did not exist? What if you dug down in the ground and there was nothing but dirt and rock.

Oil, coal and natural gas are this incredible store of energy, just sitting there in the ground waiting for us to dig them up. Amazing boon to humanity! But also: Climate change!

Would a world without oil be better? Worse? Or just different?

This is the last of five episodes about buying oil.

• Oil #1: We Buy Oil
• Oil #2: The Price of Oil
• Oil #3: How Fracking Changed the World
• Oil #4: How Oil Got Into Everything

Music: "Last Exit" and "Winding Down." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook.