NJ Ayuk | Executive Chairman | African Energy Chamber | mail me |
Energy expert Alex Epstein is convinced that when presented with the facts about fossil fuels’ positive impacts – not to mention their potential to improve the quality of life for billions of people in the developing world – even the ‘keep it in the ground’ crowd will reconsider their stance.
That’s because he’s seen it happen. Since 2014, when Epstein published The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, he has seen non-supporters of fossil fuel usage become supporters. Maybe not enough, he acknowledges, but it happens.
Logic and facts
In The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, Epstein used logic and facts to show that fossil fuels’ ability to provide cheap, reliable energy to the world is a big, big deal – and that the world still needs that ability.
And now, with calls for a halt to fossil fuel production growing louder and more insistent, Epstein is once again countering emotional arguments with well-researched, logical truths.
In his new book, Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas – Not Less, Epstein shows that the benefits of fossil fuels greatly outweigh their downsides, and they will for years to come.
“I am going to make the case that fossil fuel use will actually make the world a far better place, a place where billions more people will have the opportunity to flourish, including: to pull themselves out of poverty, to have a chance to pursue their dreams, and – this will likely seem craziest of all – to experience higher environmental quality and less danger from the climate.”
Epstein writes in his book’s first chapter
Epstein is not a climate change denier. He acknowledges that fossil fuels have contributed to the 1 degree C warming that has taken place over the last 100-plus years, and that they likely will contribute to more warming. But, he argues, the benefits of fossil fuel usage – beginning with the ability it gives us not only to survive but to thrive – greatly outweigh negative climate impacts.
Ability to master climate danger
What’s more, he writes, fossil fuels improve our ability to master climate danger. Fossil fuel usage has made the average person 50 times less likely to die from a climate-related disaster than they were in the 1 degree C cooler world of the past.
Epstein points out that fossil fuel-powered machines are used to build weather-resistant buildings, to produce warmth, and to cool the air. Fossil-fuelled irrigation systems help alleviate drought.
Fossil fuel usage is so important to the world’s future, Epstein writes, that ‘Today’s proposed policies to rapidly eliminate fossil fuel use would, if fully implemented, have truly apocalyptic consequences, making the world an impoverished, dangerous, and miserable place for most people’.
Not only do I strongly agree with the points that Epstein so eloquently makes about fossil fuels’ current and future importance, I agree with his optimism about the power of sharing the evidence of that importance clearly and persuasively.
When fossil fuel critics are faced with truths, and they agree to at least consider them with an open mind, they can indeed become supporters, even advocates.
