A once-in-a-lifetime energy education opportunity

Today’s energy crisis has proved that our anti-fossil-fuel, anti-freedom energy policies are destructive.

Now is the perfect time to educate the world about the need for pro-fossil-fuel, pro-freedom policies.

Here’s why I believe this, and what we can do to take advantage of this opportunity.

• ​​For the past 15+ years, thought leaders have told us that their attacks on the freedom to invest in, produce, and transport fossil fuels wouldn’t cause problems, because solar + wind could rapidly replace fossil fuels.

  Reality has proven them wrong.¹

• For the past 15 years, I and a handful of other pro-human energy/environmental thinkers have been publicly arguing that anti-fossil-fuel, anti-freedom energy policies would cause skyrocketing prices and huge reliability problems.

  Reality has proven us right.

• Until recently, most people did not take seriously the threat of anti-fossil-fuel, anti-freedom energy policies because the possibility of an energy crisis seemed remote—some artifact of the 1970s. Now that we are in a crisis, many people are open to the truth about energy.

• A global energy crisis clearly caused by our thought leaders makes this a perfect moment to educate the public that:

  1) The world needs more fossil fuels.
  2) The world needs more energy freedom.
  3) This will lead not to climate crisis but continuing climate mastery. (see image)

• Recent years have shown that the public is receptive to big-picture, pro-human arguments for fossil fuel use and energy freedom, and against climate catastrophism. For example, I, Michael Shellenberger, Bjorn Lomborg, and Steve Koonin have had major bestsellers to this effect.
• Despite a huge opportunity to argue for fossil fuels and energy freedom, many traditional fossil fuel supporters are seizing defeat from the jaws of victory by supporting new anti-fossil fuel policies. E.g., leading oil companies and Republicans are now pushing big carbon taxes!²
• Despite a huge opportunity to discredit the anti-fossil-fuel, anti-freedom thought leaders who caused today’s energy crisis, these people and institutions are being mostly let off the hook. E.g., the World Economic Forum and all the green nonprofits are still considered credible.³
• One key element of re-educating the world about energy is to put forward a vision of global human flourishing through global human empowerment—including empowerment of the energy-poor, such as the 3 billion individuals who use less electricity than a typical American refrigerator.

• Another key element of re-educating the world about energy is to put forward a positive energy freedom platform. Mine includes:

  Ending preferences for unreliable electricity. Decriminalizing nuclear. Liberating responsible development.

• Another key element of re-educating the world about energy is discrediting today’s anti-fossil fuel thought leaders, by pointing out that they have consistently ignored the enormous benefits of fossil fuels and catastrophized their side-effects.

• To leverage today’s unprecedented opportunity to re-educate the world about energy, we need highly persuasive resources that put forward a positive energy vision+platform, while discrediting today’s thought leaders.

  I have created two: Energy Talking Points and Fossil Future.

• The EnergyTalkingPoints.com website and my Energy Talking Points newsletter deliver powerful, concise, well-referenced talking points on energy, environmental, and climate issues. All are free. Please take advantage of them.
• My book Fossil Future, now available online and in bookstores, is the ultimate energy education resource. Written for people who expect to disagree with it, it begins by totally discrediting today’s thought leaders, then systematically explores our energy future from a pro-human perspective.
• I sent out 100s of advance copies of Fossil Future so that other people, not me, can tell you how uniquely good it is at re-educating people about energy—as one reader wrote “It’s really that good and I promise you’ll think about energy very differently.” Here are some of the many endorsements so far.
  https://alexepstein.substack.com/p/endorsements-for-fossil-future

• The Washington Post and other anti-fossil fuel institutions have tried to cancel Fossil Future, because they are afraid of my ultra-logical, ultra-pro-science refutation of their views—and the attention it is getting.

  They are right to be afraid.
  https://alexepstein.substack.com/p/how-i-stopped-the-washington-post

• 2 weeks before its 5/24 release, Fossil Future has already sold enough copies to make the NYT bestseller list (NYT bias may prevent it) and will likely sell out before release day. That’s despite an unusually large first printing.

  This is great news for energy education.

• If Fossil Future becomes an unavoidable blockbuster, the anti-fossil fuel establishment will be forced to respond to me—or be embarrassed. And if they respond, they will embarrassed, because climate catastrophism is provably false and fossil fuel elimination is provably immoral.

• Paraphrasing Victor Hugo, nothing can resist an idea whose time has come.

  The moral case for a fossil future is an idea whose time has come.

  Fossil Future has been published, a massive energy education of the world begins.

References