Fossil Future

Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas--Not Less

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This book is a counterweight and rebuttal to what the author, Alex Epstein, calls the "mainstream knowledge system" in the realm of fossil fuels and climate change. Epstein previously wrote The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, which I enjoyed (my book report here). He makes a (very) expanded argument in this book.

He says that fossil fuels are uniquely suited to provide our current and future energy needs. The have huge and irreplaceable advantages over "green" energy sources, which remain a small fraction of our energy picture, even after decades of subsidies and green propaganda. Simply speaking, trying to get rid of fossil fuel use will only make our lives miserable, as we come to depend on unreliable solar and wind sources. Not to mention the current fraction of poor people, who our policies will doom to remain poor.

Also: the doom predicted by the catastrophizers if we don't mend our sinful energy ways is (to put it mildly) unlikely. In fact, fossil fuel use will allow us to mitigate any possible climate-change scenarios.

People will react in horror to this denial of the "mainstream" consensus. Epstein argues that the "knowledge system" is biased against showing the benefits of fossil fuel use, which are many. We are presented daily with a mythic, and misanthropic, picture of the delicate, benevolent ecosystem that's only harmed by the impact of humanity. An ideal world, in this view, would be one where we would have no impact. As if humans didn't exist at all.

Epstein says: fiddlesticks. Beautiful as Mother Nature is, left to her own devices she can be a psycho killer bitch, visiting upon humanity plagues, pestilence, fires, floods, droughts, … bringing death to many thousands at a whack. And it's only due to our massive investments and innovations in fossil energy that we've managed to avoid the worst of that.

I had some problems with the Epstein's writing style, unfortunately. It's repetitive; he's a big fan of "tell them what you're going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you've just told them." He latches onto various words and phrases, and uses them over and over: e.g., "human flourishing framework" (as opposed to the "anti-impact framework"); "climate mastery"; "arguing to 100"; "machine labor"; "ultra-cost-effective"; "delicate nurturer"; etc. It's a long book (430 pages of text in the hardback) and this just makes it longer. And also seem longer.


Last Modified 2024-12-12 7:12 AM EST