Reddit reviews The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels

I have an eccentric obsession with the oil/energy industry. Some of these books were mentioned already, but below are my absolute favorites:

• The Prize
  
• The Frackers
  
• Oil 101
  
• The Big Rich
  
• The King of Oil
  
• Fundamentals of Investing in Oil and Gas
  
• The Smartest Guys in the Room
  
• The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels
  
  If you're looking for a history of oil and gas check out The Prize, and The Frackers covers the more recent energy revolution. Oil 101 and Fundamentals of Investing in Oil and Gas deal more with the technical side.

I recommend Alex Epstein's The Moral Case For Fossil Fuels for a philosophical view on the subject.

> What I've wondered is if there's any sane way of removing the carbon from the atmosphere other than just planting trees. I understand why trees are crappy as an offset vehicle, but I'm wondering if they ultimately are needed to just pull carbon out of the atmosphere.

Look up "geo-engineering".

What you're referring to is "carbon sequestration". It is less plausible than other ways of controlling global temperatures, since it would be very expensive and resource-intensive.

The more promising areas are things like cloud seeding and injecting reflective aerosols into the atmosphere to reduce the amount of light actually coming to the Earth. Even a single volcanic eruption emits enough particulate matter to significantly reduce global temperatures. With relatively little expense, it would be possible to inject similar particles directly into the stratosphere and very slightly reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the ground.

Of course, there are risks and challenges, but I think that such proposals are much more reasonable solutions to the problems of global warming than radical cuts in the use of fossil fuels and carbon emissions. Cutting emissions to the extent many environmentalists want to cut them would be an economic disaster, cutting growth and the standard of living, especially for the global poor.

It makes more sense to maximize the amount of energy and resources we can generate and use, then use some of that surplus to mitigate environmental consequences, than to try to minimize our energy and resource consumption, giving us less ability to deal with environmental and other problems that will happen regardless. For example, look at the number of people a hurricane kills when it hits Florida, vs. when a cyclone hits Bangladesh. It's much smaller in Florida, since their ability to build safe, sturdy buildings is much higher.

I recommend Alex Epstein's book The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels for a look at the importance of generating as much energy as possible for people to use. He recognizes the existence of climate change, but he argues that "minimal impact" is not the solution.

To be redpilled on the energy issue in general, and a balanced rational look at the climate change issue, I highly recommend this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Moral-Case-Fossil-Fuels/dp/1591847443

It doesn't discuss nuke as much as I would like, but it covers all the other forms energy including all the "green" energy forms.

No matter what your views currently, you will learn something useful from this book.

You hit the nail on the head when you brought up Alex Epstein: he is the best source for rational climate/energy information I know. Here are a few steps you should take if you want to get educated in that realm:

-Read his columns in Forbes (and follow him so you get notified of new articles when they're posted). The best one that's most about "climate change" per se is the recent piece The Unscientific Consensus.

-Absorb everything on his site Center for Industrial Progress. There are podcasts, blog posts, e-books, and more. You might be particularly interested in the "Environment" category and the Fossil Fuels Improve the Planet e-book.

-Pre-order a copy of his upcoming book The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels. It's guaranteed to be awesome.

-If you're on Facebook, like the Center for Industrial Progress, I Love Fossil Fuels, and I Love Nuclear pages to keep updated.

-This page on The Objective Standard site ("Exploit the Earth or Die. It's not a threat. It's a fact.") also does a great job of compiling links to more educational resources.

I hope this wasn't too overwhelming. If you're just looking for one quick hit, your best bet is the Unscientific Consensus article I mentioned before. (But IMHO, it's so good that you'll be hooked on Alex's clarity and authority and want to continue with all the other steps I mentioned :).)

The idea is that we have built the world with fossil fuels and there is a correlation between how well-developed a nation is with how much fossil fuels they have consumed. The moral reasoning is that even if coal is very dirty, it is better to pollute the world than to have millions of people starving by denying them access to coal, because westerners want them to be green.

Then after polluting the world for a century more, some future generation can figure out a way to clean things up.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Moral-Case-Fossil-Fuels/dp/1591847443

First we have hundreds of years of recoverable oil. I think every person who is like me, figures technology will get better, but for the foreseeable future, oil is our friend.

If you want a great read that will at least make you consider why oil is so amazing, read The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels

If you want a good overview of our side, read this. A moral case for fossil fuels.

Yeah, no. Besides, fossil fuels are good for the environment.

I'm sure you'll read it with an open mind

https://www.amazon.com/Moral-Case-Fossil-Fuels/dp/1591847443/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496104872&sr=8-1&keywords=the+moral+case+for+fossil+fuels

First, understand that if you're worried about things they talk about in the media, you're being emotionally manipulated. You're being ginned up to feel scared and angry to increase their ratings.

Here's the cure that I guarantee you won't take: read the other side. For example, read this:

https://www.amazon.ca/Moral-Case-Fossil-Fuels/dp/1591847443

(you won't).

Proof / plugging my Twitter account

While I'd love it if you bought my book, I promise I will be answering questions on all sorts of topics. Not going to pull a Woody Harrelson. :-)

Have you read this new book? If so, what did you think?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1591847443/ref=cm_sw_su_dp

YOU DID IT ALEX EPSTEIN!

https://www.amazon.com/Moral-Case-Fossil-Fuels/dp/1591847443/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=moral+case+for+fossil+fuels&qid=1567049925&s=gateway&sprefix=moral+case&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Moral-Case-Fossil-Fuels/dp/1591847443

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6b7K1hjZk4

Fossil fuels are great. Clean energy has it's place, but if you want reliable, peak power that you can raise and lower as demand changes there is nothing better. That means cheaper energy, and cheaper energy means more economic opportunity.

The main one is that, sure we can stop as our country or western countries. But that doesn't stop China or whatever huge polluters. So we will basically be inhibiting our economies for no reason while they excel.

Also, even if we stop trying to pollute. It's already too late, whatever we can try and do, won't be enough with current technology, so it's better to just keep on how we are going until we figure out a real method of not just stopping pollution of the air, but reversing it in a real way.

Here's a decent podcast about the topic of 'green' stuff in general

http://drdrew.com/2014/155/


http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Case-Fossil-Fuels/dp/1591847443/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419837732&sr=8-1&keywords=moral+case+for+fossil+fuels