“Energy and Society” Course (Part IV: The Perennial Energy Debate)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 3, 2019 No Comments

This is the final installment of the course syllabus of Pierre Desrochers’ Energy and Society class.

Part I explored the course description as well as the videos and readings from the first two weeks of the class; Part II covered carbon-based energy. Part III yesterday was on electricity generated from non-carbon sources (Hydro, Nuclear, Renewables, Biomass).

Population Growth, Resources and the Environment
Deffeyes, Kenneth, Peter Huber. 2005. “It’s the End of Oil / Oil Is Here to Stay.” Time, October 23.

Ellis, Erle C. 2012. “Overpopulation is not the problem.” The New York Times (September 13).  

Pearce, Fred. 2010. “The overpopulation myth.” Prospect Magazine, March 8.

Ridley, Matt. 2014. “Why Most Resources don’t Run Out.” Rational Optimist (April 30). 

Mann, Charles.
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“Energy and Society” Course (Part III: Electricity from Hydro, Nuclear, Renewables, Biomass)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 2, 2019 No Comments

This continues a series on the syllabus of Pierre Desrochers’ course at the University of Toronto Mississauga, Energy and Society, which gets my vote as the single best course on its subject in North America if not the world.

Part I explored the course description as well as the videos and readings from the first two weeks of the class; Part II covered carbon-based energy.

General
Electrification.” Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century. National Academy of Engineering. 2000. 

Bradley, Robert L and Richard W. Fulmer. Energy: The Master Resource, Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 2004, Chapter 2: Using Energy, pp. 19-20, 25-29, 30-31, 45-48.

Environmental Literacy Council Website.
Electricity.”
Electric Current and Power Transmission.”
Electric Power Grids and Blackouts.”

Lomborg, Bjørn.…

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“Energy and Society” Course (Part II: Carbon-based Energies)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 28, 2019 2 Comments

Yesterday, Part I in this series presented the introduction, overview, and opening syllabus of Pierre Desrochers’ master course on energy. Part II today presents the all-importation section on carbon-based energies (oil, natural gas, coal).

Next week, Parts III will cover hydro, nuclear, biomass, and renewable energies, Part IV, will cover the readings for The Great Energy Debate.

Carbon Fuels
– Overview
Alex Epstein. 2015. “Why You Should Love Fossil Fuels.” PragerU (April 20).  

GatesNotes. 2014. Bjorn Lomborg: Saving Lives with Fossil Fuels (June 25).

Oil Sands Action. 2016. “Life Without Oil and Petroleum Products? Not so simple…”  

What If. 2018. “What If No More Oil?” 

American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM). 2016. “Petrochemicals: The Building Blocks of Modern Life.”  

Heritage Foundation. 2018. “Who Is Reducing Its Greenhouse Gas Emissions the Most?

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“Why We Won’t Quit the Climate Fight” (the growing futility, despair of climate alarmists)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 12, 2019 1 Comment

“We are old climate veterans who have tried to do our part, in every way we know how, to keep our fossil-fuel addicted civilization from driving off a cliff. Are we tired? Sure. Discouraged? Absolutely. Pissed off? Yep. Sad? Call it broken-hearted.”

– Kathleen Dean Moore and SueEllen Campbell, Why We Won’t Quite the Climate Fight, Earth Island Journal, January 28, 2019.

“The admittedly ‘tired … discouraged … pissed off … broken-hearted’ deep ecologists can either live in gloom and despair or check their premises to entertain happiness…. Don’t quit–study. Consider Julian Simon’s The Ultimate Resource 2 for starters. And live joyfully.” (below)

It is a fossil-fuel world for as far as the eye can see. Abundant, affordable, and reliable, mineral energies are the ones that consumers voluntarily purchase.

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Marian Tupy: “Celebrate the Industrial Revolution and What Fueled It”

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 30, 2019 2 Comments Continue Reading

Energy & Modernity: Three Industrial Revolutions (Heartland Institute treatise excerpt)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 19, 2018 3 Comments Continue Reading

Where Good Is Bad: ‘The Energy of Slaves’ (Oil as ‘servitude’?)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- November 16, 2017 8 Comments Continue Reading

“The Utter Complete Total Fraud of Wind Power’ (Matt Ridley presents the facts)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 19, 2017 12 Comments Continue Reading

RFF’s Climate Anger (intellectual pollution hazardous too)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 4, 2017 2 Comments Continue Reading

Michael Lynch Interview (new book reviews, refutes ‘Peak Oil’ scare)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 28, 2017 4 Comments Continue Reading