Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas--Not Less

The New York Times bestselling author of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels draws on the latest data and new insights to challenge everything you thought you knew about the future of energy For over a decade, philosopher and energy expert Alex Epstein has predicted that any negative impacts of fossil fuel use on our climate will be outweighed by the unique benefits of fossil fuels to human flourishing--including their unrivaled ability to provide low-cost, reliable energy to billions of people around the world, especially the worlds poorest people. And contrary to what we hear from media experts about todays renewable revolution and climate emergency, reality has proven Epstein right: Fact: Fossil fuels are still the dominant source of energy around the world, and growing fastwhile much-hyped renewables are causing skyrocketing electricity prices and increased blackouts. Fact: Fossil-fueled development has brought global poverty to an all-time low. Fact: While fossil fuels have contributed to the 1 degree of warming in the last 170 years, climate-related deaths are at all-time lows thanks to fossil-fueled development. What does the future hold? In Fossil Future, Epstein, applying his distinctive human flourishing framework to the latest evidence, comes to the shocking conclusion that the benefits of fossil fuels will continue to far outweigh their side effectsincluding climate impactsfor generations to come. The path to global human flourishing, Epstein argues, is a combination of using more fossil fuels, getting better at climate mastery, and establishing energy freedom policies that allow nuclear and other truly promising alternatives to reach their full long-term potential. Todays pervasive claims of imminent climate catastrophe and imminent renewable energy dominance, Epstein shows, are based on what he calls the anti-impact frameworka set of faulty methods, false assumptions, and anti-human values that have caused the medias designated experts to make wildly wrong predictions about fossil fuels, climate, and renewables for the last fifty years. Deeply researched and wide-ranging, this book will cause you to rethink everything you thought you knew about the future of our energy use, our environment, and our climate.