William Wilberforce was an English politician, theologian and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade for twenty-six years until the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807. Alex Epstein is perhaps waging the same sort of crusade with his book, The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, with hopefully results in a shorter time. At stake is a battle with those who want us to replace our existing energy sources that are cheap, plentiful and reliable with expensive, intermittent sources that have as their standard of value as nonimpact on nature as opposed to the moral ideal of human life as a standard of value. As Epstein writes cogently throughout the book, “Fossil Fuels have enabled billions of people to live longer and more fulfilling lives. Going to the non humanist view of pristine nature would have caused the deaths and suffering on those same billions” Epstein artfully addresses the many fallacies the opposition debates by continually stating, “Fossil Fuel technology transforms nature to improve human life. The moral case for Fossil Fuels is not about Fossil Fuels its the moral case for using cheap, plentiful, reliable energy to amplify our abilities to make the world a better place for human beings.” The author clearly and concisely builds the moral case for Fossil Fuels as he also addresses the historic, social and cultural clashes along with solutions to address each issue through his personal experiences. As Epstein argues, understanding the anti fossil fuel movement is key to knowing how one can communicate for a “Human Centered View of the Environment.” Epstein’s, Center for Industrial Progress and this book are a positive alternative to the mainstream green environmental movement, “to replace the deadly ideal of nonimpact with the true ideal of industrial progress.” As the author notes, “We dont want to save the planet from human beings; we want to improve the planet for human beings.” Like Wilberforce, Alex Epstein has a battle ahead to win the future, with the “prejudiced” “antihuman movement.” Yet, with his influence with thought leaders, industry and we as citizens in action can build the Moral Case for Fossil Fuels. The summation of the book is beautiful, Mankinds use of fossil fuels is supremely virtuous - because human life is the standard of value, and because using fossil fuels transforms our environment to make it wonderful for human life A transformative book. I highly recommend. moralcaseforfossilfuels/
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 20:58:01 +0000
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