You know that I love to challenge my existing beliefs to see if they’re solid or not, so when a friend gave me a copy of “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels” by Alex Epstein, I was excited to give it a read. I couldn’t understand why a book would have that title (other than to interest people, which it did), so I was happy to dig in.
As it turns out, I agree with Epstein’s two main points.
Fossil fuels have helped humanity tremendously. There is no doubt about that. Fossil fuels have saved millions of lives thanks to improved living conditions, medical advances, food production, and much more. Related, Epstein says:
“If we look at history, an incredibly disproportionate percentage of valuable ideas have come in the last several centuries, coinciding with fossil-fueled civilization. Why? Because such a productive civilization buys us time to think and discover, and then use that knowledge to become more productive, and buy more time to think and discover.”
We’re not ready to stop using fossil fuels. I also agree with this. While I think alternative sources (largely solar) are the future, we’re not close to giving up fossil fuels yet. His book was written eight years ago, and we’re getting a bit closer, but still have a long way to go. His point holds, with his main support being this:
“We don’t want to “save the planet” from human beings; we want to improve the planet for human beings. We need to say this loudly and proudly. We need to say that human life is our one and only standard of value.”
Do those make continued use of fossil fuels moral?
That said, neither of those reasons make the long-term use of fossil fuels moral. As long as we can supply the world with adequate energy, we should generate as much of that energy as possible using means that are healthier for the planet.
For much of the book, he sets up a strawman that I don’t think many people believe in: green energy will mean a reduction in the quality of human life. There are likely some people out there that want to see fossil fuel usage stopped immediately, consequences be damned, but most people that I talk to tend to take a more reasonable approach. We should keep working forward, finding better ways to capture, store, and use cleaner sources of energy, but continue to supplement with fossil fuels as needed.
It reminds me of my post from last year comparing electric cars today to digital cameras in the 90’s. In the comic I shared, people make fun of electric cars that use fossil fuels to generate their electricity, but I simply see it as a necessary step along the way. For electric cars and similar “green” initiatives, things will be bumpy for the next few decades, and using fossil fuels to smooth out the transition seems like a wise thing to do.
We should all be immensely thankful for what fossil fuels have meant for our lives to this point, and continue to use them as needed in the future. Hopefully, over time, they can help pave the way to their own demise, but we don’t need to make hasty and detrimental choices on the way there.
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