“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

“The Industrial Revolution did not cause hunger, poverty and child labor. Those were always with us. The Industrial Revolution helped to eliminate them.”

MasterResource from time to time has updated our readership on the significant work being done at HumanProgress (Cato Institute). Marian Tupy, founder and editor, is continuing the tradition of Julian Simon (1932–1998). It was Simon who described energy as “the master resource,” the inspiration for this blogsite.

Recently, Tupy penned his thoughts about the importance of energy to human advancement—and mineral energies to energy. His 1,500-word post follows in its entirety.

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What is the role of the Industrial Revolution in general and fossil fuels in particular in bringing human improvement? Those readers who are familiar with Alex Epstein’s excellent The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels will recognize the gist of my argument: fossil fuels, which drive, among other things, modern agriculture and industrial production, make present-day abundance possible.

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

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

This post reprints Section 3.2.1 of Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels (Summary for Policymakers here.) This is the fifth volume in the Climate Change Reconsidered series published by the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC).

This treatise from The Heartland Institute continues a tradition of offering citizens and scholars an alternative view of all issues relating to climate science and climate policy. This brief excerpt (subtitles added) will be joined in the New Year with many other excerpts on specific issues to better disseminate the major findings of this major treatise.

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Fossil fuels make possible such transformative technologies as nitrogen fertilizer, concrete, the steam engine and cotton gin, electrification, the internal combustion engine, and the computer and Internet revolution.

Prior to the widespread use of fossil fuels, humans expended nearly as much energy (calories) producing food and finding fuel (primarily wood and dung) to warm their dwellings as their primitive technologies were able to produce.

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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

“The Energy Crisis of the 1970s: Looking Back, Looking Ahead” (Econ 101 needed at RFF seminar)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 4, 2016 7 Comments Continue Reading

“Oil Prices and the Business Cycle” (Interview with Robert L. Bradley Jr.)

By Robert Murphy -- April 25, 2016 2 Comments Continue Reading