As early as 1856, the American scientist Eunice Newton Foote (1819-1888) recognised from published experiments that relatively large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO ) in the atmosphere would increase the temperature of the planet [1]. The world's first crude oil refinery was built the same year [2]. It is difficult to envisage where humanity would stand now, 175 years later, without products derived from crude oil and other fossil resources. But if humanity does not make a transition from fossil energy sources to renewable raw materials - bio-based or recycled - in the coming decades, all scientific evidence points to ...