The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels

Author: Alex Epstein
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1591847443
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
Could everything we know about fossil fuels be wrong? For decades, environmentalists have told us that using fossil fuels is a self-destructive addiction that will destroy our planet. Yet at the same time, by every measure of human well-being, from life expectancy to clean water to climate safety, life has been getting better and better. How can this be? The explanation, energy expert Alex Epstein argues in The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, is that we usually hear only one side of the story. We’re taught to think only of the negatives of fossil fuels, their risks and side effects, but not their positives—their unique ability to provide cheap, reliable energy for a world of seven billion people. And the moral significance of cheap, reliable energy, Epstein argues, is woefully underrated. Energy is our ability to improve every single aspect of life, whether economic or environmental. If we look at the big picture of fossil fuels compared with the alternatives, the overall impact of using fossil fuels is to make the world a far better place. We are morally obligated to use more fossil fuels for the sake of our economy and our environment. Drawing on original insights and cutting-edge research, Epstein argues that most of what we hear about fossil fuels is a myth. For instance . . . Myth: Fossil fuels are dirty. Truth: The environmental benefits of using fossil fuels far outweigh the risks. Fossil fuels don’t take a naturally clean environment and make it dirty; they take a naturally dirty environment and make it clean. They don’t take a naturally safe climate and make it dangerous; they take a naturally dangerous climate and make it ever safer. Myth: Fossil fuels are unsustainable, so we should strive to use “renewable” solar and wind. Truth: The sun and wind are intermittent, unreliable fuels that always need backup from a reliable source of energy—usually fossil fuels. There are huge amounts of fossil fuels left, and we have plenty of time to find something cheaper. Myth: Fossil fuels are hurting the developing world. Truth: Fossil fuels are the key to improving the quality of life for billions of people in the developing world. If we withhold them, access to clean water plummets, critical medical machines like incubators become impossible to operate, and life expectancy drops significantly. Calls to “get off fossil fuels” are calls to degrade the lives of innocent people who merely want the same opportunities we enjoy in the West. Taking everything into account, including the facts about climate change, Epstein argues that “fossil fuels are easy to misunderstand and demonize, but they are absolutely good to use. And they absolutely need to be championed. . . . Mankind’s use of fossil fuels is supremely virtuous—because human life is the standard of value and because using fossil fuels transforms our environment to make it wonderful for human life.”

Fossil Future

Author: Alex Epstein
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593420411
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 481

Book Description
The New York Times bestselling author of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels draws on the latest data and new insights to challenge everything you thought you knew about the future of energy For over a decade, philosopher and energy expert Alex Epstein has predicted that any negative impacts of fossil fuel use on our climate will be outweighed by the unique benefits of fossil fuels to human flourishing--including their unrivaled ability to provide low-cost, reliable energy to billions of people around the world, especially the world’s poorest people. And contrary to what we hear from media “experts” about today’s “renewable revolution” and “climate emergency,” reality has proven Epstein right: Fact: Fossil fuels are still the dominant source of energy around the world, and growing fast—while much-hyped renewables are causing skyrocketing electricity prices and increased blackouts. Fact: Fossil-fueled development has brought global poverty to an all-time low. Fact: While fossil fuels have contributed to the 1 degree of warming in the last 170 years, climate-related deaths are at all-time lows thanks to fossil-fueled development. What does the future hold? In Fossil Future, Epstein, applying his distinctive “human flourishing framework” to the latest evidence, comes to the shocking conclusion that the benefits of fossil fuels will continue to far outweigh their side effects—including climate impacts—for generations to come. The path to global human flourishing, Epstein argues, is a combination of using more fossil fuels, getting better at “climate mastery,” and establishing “energy freedom” policies that allow nuclear and other truly promising alternatives to reach their full long-term potential. Today’s pervasive claims of imminent climate catastrophe and imminent renewable energy dominance, Epstein shows, are based on what he calls the “anti-impact framework”—a set of faulty methods, false assumptions, and anti-human values that have caused the media’s designated experts to make wildly wrong predictions about fossil fuels, climate, and renewables for the last fifty years. Deeply researched and wide-ranging, this book will cause you to rethink everything you thought you knew about the future of our energy use, our environment, and our climate.

Fossil Fuels and Pollution

Author: Julie Kerr Casper
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
ISBN: 1438127413
Category : Earth sciences
Languages : en
Pages : 285

Book Description
Provides an introduction to fossil fuels, their impact on the environment worldwide, and why controlling them is crucial to Earth's future climate.

Fossil Fuels

Author: Marcia Zappa
Publisher: ABDO
ISBN: 9781616134921
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 36

Book Description
Introduces the three main types of fossil fuel--coal, oil, and natural gas--and how they are processed and transported, and describes how they make electricity, how they are being used up, conservation efforts, and related topics.

Fossil Fuels Improve the Planet

Author: Alex J. Epstein
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780989344807
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
The basic question underlying our energy policy debates is this: Should we be free to generate more and more energy using fossil fuels? Or should we restrict and progressively outlaw fossil fuels as "dirty energy"? I believe that if we look at the big picture, the facts are clear. If we want a healthy, livable environment, then we must be free to use fossil fuels. Why? Because for the foreseeable future, fossil fuels provide the key to a great environment: abundant, affordable, reliable energy.

Heat

Author: George Monbiot
Publisher: Anchor Canada
ISBN: 0307371980
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 298

Book Description
George Monbiot’s Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning marks an important moment in our civilization’s thinking about global warming. The question is no longer whether climate change is actually happening. The question is what to do about it. Monbiot offers an ambitious and far-reaching program to cut our carbon dioxide emissions to the point where the environmental scales start tipping away from catastrophe. (But not before he devotes a chapter to unmasking the vested interests that have spent fortunes funding the specious science of the climate change deniers.) It now seems certain that we need a 90% cut in our emissions by 2030 to prevent runaway climate change from taking place. For the first time, this book explains how the cut could be achieved without bringing industrial civilisation to an end. Combining his unique knowledge of political campaigning and environmental science, Monbiot analyses the potential of energy efficiency, renewable resources, carbon burial, nuclear power and new transport and building systems to discover what works, what doesn't, what costs the least and what needs to be done to make change happen. He is not afraid to attack anyone—friend or foe—whose claims are false or whose figures have been fudged. His original, sometimes shocking programme shows that we can reconcile our demands for comfort and security with the survival of the biosphere. Rigorous, passionate and totally surprising, this book could change the world. It is possible to slow the momentum of this global crisis—if we act decisively. In this riveting, fiery book, the No Logo of the environmental movement, George Monbiot shows us how.

Fossil Free

Author: Sumant Sinha
Publisher: Harper Business India
ISBN: 9789356294325
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Having founded and helmed India's leading clean energy company, his understanding of the global energy landscape and climate change brings a unique, holistic perspective on energy. Sinha shares his vision for energy which is not only clean, but also practical and affordable.

The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, Revised Edition

Author: Alex Epstein
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593087437
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Revised and updated--a contrarian cost-benefit analysis that will make you rethink your ideas about fossil fuels. For decades, environmentalists have told us that using fossil fuels is a self-destructive addiction that will destroy our planet. Yet at the same time, by every measure of human well-being, from life expectancy to clean water to climate safety, life has been getting better and better. How can this be? The explanation, energy expert Alex Epstein argues in The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, is that we usually hear only one side of the story. We're taught to think only of the negatives of fossil fuels, their risks and side effects, but not their positives--their unique ability to provide cheap, reliable energy for a world of seven billion people. And the moral significance of cheap, reliable energy, Epstein argues, is woefully underrated. Energy is our ability to improve every single aspect of life, whether economic or environmental. Drawing on original insights and cutting-edge research, Epstein argues that most of what we hear about fossil fuels is a myth. For instance: Myth: Fossil fuels are dirty. Truth: The environmental benefits of using fossil fuels far outweigh the risks. Fossil fuels don't take a naturally clean environment and make it dirty; they take a naturally dirty environment and make it clean. Myth: Fossil fuels are unsustainable, so we should strive to use "renewable" solar and wind. Truth: The sun and wind are intermittent, unreliable fuels that always need backup from a reliable source of energy--usually fossil fuels. There are huge amounts of fossil fuels left, and we have plenty of time to find something cheaper. Myth: Fossil fuels are hurting the developing world. Truth: Fossil fuels are the key to improving the quality of life for billions of people in the developing world. If we withhold them, access to clean water plummets, critical medical machines like incubators become impossible to operate, and life expectancy drops significantly. Now fully updated with the latest data and addressing the most recent controversies from "peak oil demand" to the Green New Deal, this controversial book will compel readers to rethink their assumptions.

Fossil Fuels

Author: Ian Graham
Publisher: Capstone Classroom
ISBN: 9781403456236
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 36

Book Description
This book defines what fossil fuels are, the types of fossil fuels and their properties, explains where they are found, extracted, and processed. It also discusses environmental issues connected with fossil fuels.

Fossil Fuels

Author: Amy S. Hansen
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
ISBN: 1448801966
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 26

Book Description
Burning fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, generates most of the power that we use today. This book explains how these fuels formed and why we must approach our use and production carefully as this is a finite source.