Global Populace Discovers Thermodynamics, Immediately Incensed

A ground-breaking, albeit highly inconvenient, scientific revelation has sent shockwaves through the global populace: the availability of fossil fuels is, in fact, finite, and their extraction, refinement, and transport are not conducted by magical energy sprites but by processes requiring, you guessed it, more energy. From the sun-baked streets of Jakarta to the increasingly chilly avenues of Damascus, citizens have met this perplexing economic reality with the age-old, tried-and-true method of collective foot-stomping and general vehicular paralysis. Experts suggest this is less a logical response to market fluctuations and more a deeply ingrained human aversion to paying slightly more for the privilege of moving approximately two tons of metal to fetch a loaf of bread. Sources close to the protests indicate that many participants are now demanding a return to the 'good old days' of affordable combustion, failing to specify precisely which decade that was, or how the current supply chain woes might spontaneously resolve themselves through the sheer power of communal indignation. Blackouts, it seems, are merely a dramatic, if inconvenient, visual aid to this global teachable moment.