Putting People's Well-Being First: A Review of Alex
Epstein's
The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels |
To most environmental activists, many of my students and some of my
colleagues, life before the era of “carbon fuel pollution” was somewhat
similar to the idyllic and carefree existence of the Hobbits. Indeed,
looking at the support that organizations like
Toronto350
have garnered in their quest to get universities to divest from
“socially injurious” fossil fuel companies, one must admit that (re)creating
the Shire is a political program with much wind in its (one must assume
organically grown and ethically woven) sails...
So how should
an energy realist go about reminding
a University of Toronto Presidential Advisory Committee that the
“good old days” were more akin to trying times, that poverty is
something that most human beings have historically tried to escape from
rather than a virtue, and that (energy) reality is not optional?
One option is to explain once more that coal, petroleum and natural gas
came to dominate our energy system for good practical reasons, and that
truly superior alternatives would not need taxpayers’ money to be
mandated into our houses or shoveled down on our landscape.
For instance, a few days ago my friends Germain Belzile and Youri
Chassin published
a study on the costs of an accelerated transition toward green
energies and the willingness of Canadians to pay for these costs.
Looking at some proposals of Québec-based Équiterre and Vivre
en ville for reducing oil consumption for personal transportation
that ranged from bicycle sharing services to high-speed rail service,
they concluded that these “sustainable” options would come with an
annual price tag of approximately $6.4 billion for Quebec as a whole, or
$1,875 per household. In Quebec as in other jurisdictions that have
already gone down green roads paved with (feel) good intentions,
subsidizing inferior alternatives will result in massive wealth
destruction without any meaningful beneficial environmental outcome.
The problem, of course, is that energy reality doesn’t accord with the
ethical preferences of self-appointed guardians of the greater good who
would rather dismiss or heckle their critics as corporate shills than address their arguments. After all, who could be against unspoiled
nature, communal bliss and subsidized elitist artistic expressions but
people in the pockets of greedy corporations? And who will dare to keep
consumers in check for their own good and that of future children, to
say nothing of voiceless critters and ecosystems, if not virtuous
individuals like themselves (even though they might have to use a fair
amount of carbon fuels to get their message across)?
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“As one expects,
The
Moral Case for Fossil Fuels debunks most of the nonsense that has
now become the common wisdom of the chattering classes on
energy issues.” |
But while it was perhaps unavoidable that pampered academic rebels
looking for a new cause would eventually settle on telling
energy-starved masses to eat little, distant, costly, intermittent,
unreliable, and low-density energy cupcakes, what has been especially
disheartening for energy realists is how many energy executives have
been shamed into paying lip-service (and a fair amount of
“sustainability” and “green partnership” consulting fees) to their most
virulent detractors.
Enter Alex Epstein,
the young dynamo behind the
Center for
Industrial Progress (CIP) (Disclaimer: Alex is a virtual friend,
meaning we’ve met through Skype rather than face-to-face, something
which would have required burning much more carbon fuel...)
A philosopher by training, Epstein is now an energetic happy
intellectual warrior who takes the case for fossil fuels into the most
hostile corners, be they
academia or
the People’s Climate March. Even better, he managed to organize a debate in which
he confronted the 350 éminence grise
Bill McKibben himself!
Apart from his intelligence, passion and youthful drive,
Epstein’s success is largely attributable to his re-framing
of old energy debates in a moral light. As he explains in
his
recent book, the question of what to do about fossil fuels should
come down to what will promote human life and flourishing rather than
“holding human nonimpact as one’s standard of value, without
regard for human life and happiness” (page 30). (Of course, the fact
that Epstein even has to make the case against the “irrational moral
prejudice” against cheap and reliable energy tells us how far some
sizeable segments of the political left have gone on the misanthropic
side of the intellectual universe, a corner once mostly populated by
aristocrats, romantics, nouveaux riches and academic ecologists. Truth
be told though, not all self-styled progressives are comfortable with
the now dominant “reactionary
apocalyptic pastoralism” and some, like my [again virtual] friends
at Spiked!
are actually remarkably sensible and creative
on the issue.)
As one expects,
The
Moral Case for Fossil Fuels debunks most of the nonsense that
has now become the common wisdom of the chattering classes on energy
issues. Do you want to know why you can’t power light rail systems or
simply manufacture smart phones, bicycles or triple glazed windows with
wind turbines, solar panels and anaerobic digesters? Or why being
operated on in a hospital powered only by “alternatives” might be
harmful to your health? Epstein will not only tell you with clarity
and gusto, but with a knack for witty one liners that this (arguably
less articulate and funny) energy writer hasn’t encountered before.
Most importantly, Epstein dares to venture where many energy realists
won’t go by explaining at some length that cheap, plentiful and reliable
energy, combined with human ingenuity, “gives us the ability to
transform the world around us into a place that is far safer from any
health hazards (man-made or natural), far safer from any climate change
(man-made or natural), and far richer in resources now and in the
future” (page 33).
Whatever your reason might be for buying gifts in late December, please
consider (on top of your own) offering a copy of The Moral Case for
Fossil Fuels to both your loved ones and those sanctimonious green
hipsters in your life. It is, as far as I know, the best accessible
moral case made on behalf of an issue that is, in the end, a matter of
life and death.
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From the same author |
▪
Du pétrole et des hommes
(no
326 – 15 novembre 2014)
▪
On the Absurdity of Murray Dobbin's Carbon Fuels CEO
Witch Hunt
(no
324 – Sept. 15, 2014)
▪
Review of Animal Cities: Beastly Urban Histories
by Peter Atkins (ed)
(no
318 – January 15, 2014)
▪
Les souverainistes alimentaires font fausse route
(no
310 – 15 avril 2013)
▪
Beyond Locavorism: Food Diversity for Food Security
(Carbon-Fuel Transport Remains Essential)
(no
309 – March 15, 2013)
▪
More...
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word 'liberty,' circa 2300 B.C. |
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