tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post855631365526112695..comments2024-03-18T17:17:00.423+13:00Comments on Not PC: "The Crisis in Energy Education"Peter Cresswellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10699845031503699181noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-56630178961861101442015-03-10T00:07:29.869+13:002015-03-10T00:07:29.869+13:00@Max: Yes, fossil fuel use has a lot of downsides ...@Max: Yes, fossil fuel use has a lot of downsides - and Winston Churchill made a lot of mistakes (when he wasn't saving the Western world from dictatorship that is).MarkThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06199883270652041621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-69581724562932202172015-03-09T19:41:42.222+13:002015-03-09T19:41:42.222+13:00Peter, I was adding the context Epstein & your...Peter, I was adding the context Epstein & yourself are ignoring. Fossil fuel use has drawbacks as well as benefits. By overstating the benefits and ignoring the drawbacks you are showing the same cognitive dissonance as the as the tree-huggers at the other end of the spectrum.<br /><br />Increasing fossil fuel use does not equal increased prosperity, health, life expectancy etc. The USA uses roughly double the energy per capita than European countries yet is well down the rankings on these statistics. Context remember?<br /><br />Of course property rights will fix the pollution problems of the 3rd world, because cities in developed countries like Los Angeles don't have air pollution problems. Maxnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-25252783321702002312015-03-09T13:53:48.385+13:002015-03-09T13:53:48.385+13:00@Max: Let's just appreciate the context that y...@Max: Let's just appreciate the context that you're dropping by rewriting your sentences more fully reflective of that context:<br /><br />Epstein is revealing the context of fossil fuel use that is almost universally ignored: of the the indispensable benefits provided by fossil fuels and the increasing health, wealth, life expectancy and prosperity it makes possible.<br /><br />Fossil fuels now provide the energy needs that underpin prosperity and survival right across industrial and developing civilisation, where it has taken on increasing importance in recent times with the growing numbers of human beings and rapidly increasing life expectancy it has made possible in increasingly prosperous cities like Beijing and Mexico City (made possible by increasing fossil fuel use) where, in this first stage of industrialisation and without yet fully recognised property rights, they also make the air unpleasant for those who would otherwise not be alive. <br /><br />So with increasing populations comes the need to find more efficient, or at least non-polluting energy generation, recognition of real property rights that will provide incentive for their use, and the increasing prosperity (that fossil fuels make possible) that will make these systems and sources affordable for all -- just as has occurred in the west's long journey from the industrial revolution to today, only much, much more rapidly.<br /><br />Max should find a more constructive use for his time. Peter Cresswellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10699845031503699181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-83814987293513888702015-03-09T12:21:06.383+13:002015-03-09T12:21:06.383+13:00Epstein is changing the subject and promoting a st...Epstein is changing the subject and promoting a straw man argument at the same time.<br /><br />Fossil fuels provide the energy needs in cities like Beijing and Mexico City, but they also make the air unbreathable. <br /><br />So with increasing populations comes the need to find more efficient, or at least non-polluting energy sources.<br /><br />Epstein should find a more constructive use for his time.Maxnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-23109436894484377312015-03-06T09:06:17.326+13:002015-03-06T09:06:17.326+13:00Driving back south from Cairns, I took the inland ...Driving back south from Cairns, I took the inland road, and one night slept beside the railway line. In the early morning I could hear the big train trucks coming down. I thought it was the cattle train but it was coal; hundreds of tons of coal, maybe going to Gladstone and I waved and waved at this train driver like a schoolboy. <br />He gave that penetrating blast through the air that only trains can, and waved back . We were in Bob Katter's independent territory and everyone there knows the value of coal.<br />paul scotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15675247055484136242noreply@blogger.com