Book Review: Fossil Future

Fossil Future is a thought-provoking, full-throated defense of fossil fuels, bringing convincing evidence & a moral philosophy of human flourishing to bear on the contentious topic of climate change.


Human-impacted climate change has been labeled as an “existential threat,” a “catastrophe,” and an “apocalypse.” Depending on the ‘expert’ testimony you choose to believe, we either have ten years, seven years, five years, or a mere three years (back in 2017) to save the planet from total devastation. This intense doomsaying is widely promulgated in our media, our government institutions, and our corporate world. It is leading to serious mental health issues in younger Americans, who take this rhetoric from teachers, parents, and social media influencers seriously and have developed what has been labeled “climate anxiety.” We are told that we need to totally reorient the global economy, completely end all use of fossil fuels, and stop having children if we are to end this horrible crisis and preserve the earth in a pristine natural state.

But is any of this fear and apocalyptic rhetoric justified? A provocative new book from the philosopher and energy researcher Alex Epstein argues that it isn’t. And not only that, Fossil Future argues that to expand human flourishing we need to expand fossil fuel use, not curtail or end it entirely.

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On Traffic and Disaster Evacuations

If you have been watching the news or weather at all over the past few weeks, I’m sure you have seen many images that look like this:

Irma Evac 1
Evacuation traffic on northbound Interstate 75 and the Florida Turnpike during the lead-up to Hurricane Irma.  Photo: Andrew West, The (Fort Myers, FL) News-Press

Or perhaps something like this:

Harvey Evac 1
Traffic stalls on Interstate 37 leaving Corpus Christi as the devastating Hurricane Harvey approaches Texas.  Photo: Kevin Steele 12NewsNow via Facebook

You may also have heard about gas shortages, as hundreds of thousands of motorists hit the roads simultaneously to get out of the path of Hurricane Irma, the latest devastating natural disaster to bear down on our nation.Read More »