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Thank goodness for fossil fuels
13
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Thank goodness for fossil fuels

Your Sunday morning thought piece
13

When I look at the things fossil fuels have made possible for mankind, I sometimes shake my head and wonder why we loathe them so much.

The energy created by fossil fuels have opened up so many possibilities for so many people. We can go just about anywhere, quickly and safely. It really is possible to experience the whole world. The trading opportunities that have opened us mean the whole world can be brought to us, without our having to leave our warm, safe, well lit homes. 

We live longer, better, safer lives thanks to fossil fuels. We can communicate with anyone anywhere. We have instant access to unlimited information. Billions have been brought out of poverty thanks to this unique, low-cost, reliable energy source. We enjoy lives and luxuries even the most decadent figures in history from Marie Antoinette to Caligula could never have dreamed of. Life expectancy has rocketed, As Alex Epstein says, and poverty has plummeted.

We still have a long way to go, of course. Perfection has not yet been attained. 

I question the morality of trying to abandon these energy sources when there are still billions of poor in the world who have yet to experience the luxuries we now take for granted that have been made possible. It’s like pulling up the ladder after you’ve climbed, so that others cannot climb too.

people holding signs
Photo by Callum Shaw on Unsplash

And we have got so much better at consuming these energy sources too. Even in my lifetime the smoggy air of London has got cleaner. Stone Age man would burn down a whole chunk of forest just to trap an animal. As human beings progress we get consume more energy and we consume it better.

I know this is a view that many will not hold, but wake up to the benefits of fossil fuels, embrace them, celebrate them, don’t denigrate them, and for the good of man invest in them too. It’s your moral duty!

They are even making the transition to renewable energy possible. That’s what so few seem to get. To get your green revolution, all the metal that’s required for wind turbines, lithium batteries and solar panels, to then manufacture and transport them on site, you’re going to have to burn a heck of a lot of fossil fuel. 

Discussion about this episode

User's avatar
Drew's avatar

As usual you’re bang on the money, Sir.

I just don’t buy that most people with a functioning brain loathe fossil fuels. It’s just the minority psychopaths in charge through their global msm establishment amplifiers that pretend this to be so.

It’s long past time we just ignore them. And get long oil n gas n related service companies for a decade or more of outsize performance imho.

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Possession Friend's avatar

Bojo's Net Zero is the most harmful thing to Britain ! He's got to go ! The lying Toad.

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Possession Friend's avatar

Bojo's Net Zero is the most harmful thing to Britain ! He's got to go ! The lying Toad.

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Van's avatar

Fossil fuel is a misnomer for oil. The actual descriptive word should be abiotic. Oil is created in the bowels of the earth and as such we will never run out of the black stuff. It is self replenishing.

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Chris Macfarlane's avatar

Neil, I'm genuinely keen to hear more. Also, is 'fossil fuel' not an all-encompassing term for coal etc?

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Van's avatar

Fletcher Prouty was the inspiration for "Deep Throat" in Oliver Stone's movie JFK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSff0pwc1Xc

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MARTI0141's avatar

A chap over on Twitter (Peter Clack) is also touting this theory.

"Oil is the most plentiful liquid on earth, second only to water."

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Chris Macfarlane's avatar

I could get my head round this... but over what time-scale? Millions of years?

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UK refugee's avatar

Source?

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Chris Macfarlane's avatar

I find it frustrating that more people do not understand that the green revolution is front-loaded with copper mining etc. another good article.

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Mike Garland's avatar

Hear hear!

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Wesley Sanders's avatar

"To get your green revolution, all the metal that’s required for wind turbines, lithium batteries and solar panels, to then manufacture and transport them on site, you’re going to have to burn a heck of a lot of fossil fuel. " - you'll only have to do this for the theoretical first generation of EVs which do the transportation. After that, it'll be charged electricity generated from solar, wind etc.

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Dominic Frisby's avatar

Until the equipment needs replacing ...

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