Fossil Fuels: The Greenest Energy

To make earth cleaner, greener and safer, which energy sources should humanity rely on? Alex Epstein of the Center for Industrial Progress explains how modern societies have cleaned up our water, air and streets using the very energy sources you may not have expected–oil, coal and natural gas. Donate today to PragerU: http://l.prageru.com/2eB2p0h

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Script:

What if I told you that someone had developed an energy source that could help us solve our biggest environmental challenges, purify our water and air, make our cities and homes more sanitary, and keep us safe from potential catastrophic climate change? What if I also told you that this energy source was cheap, plentiful, and reliable?

Well, there is such a source. You probably know it as fossil fuel. Oil. Natural gas. Coal.

But wait? Don’t fossil fuels pollute our environment and make our climate unlivable? That, of course, is what we’re told…and what our children are taught. But let’s look at the data. Here’s a graph you’ve probably never seen: the correlation between use of fossil fuels and access to clean water. More fossil fuel. More clean water. Am I saying the more we that we have used fossil fuel, the cleaner our water has become? Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.

In the developed world, we take clean water for granted. We turn on a tap and it’s there. But getting it there takes a massive amount of energy. Think of the man-made reservoirs, the purification plants, the network of pipes. In the undeveloped world, it’s a much different story. They lack the energy, so they lack clean water. More fossil fuel. More clean water.

The same is true of sanitation. By the use of cheap, plentiful, and reliable energy from fossil fuels, we have made our environment cleaner. Take a look at this graph. More fossil fuel. Better sanitation.

Okay, what about air quality? Here’s a graph of the air pollution trends in the United States over the last half century based on data from the Environmental Protection Agency. Note the dramatic downward trend in emissions, even though we use more fossil fuel than ever. How was this achieved? Above all, by using anti-pollution technology powered by…fossil fuel: oil, natural gas and coal.

But even without modern pollution control technology, fossil fuel makes our air cleaner. Indoor pollution—caused by burning a fire inside your house, cabin, hut or tent to cook and keep warm—was a deadly global problem until the late 19th century when cheap kerosene, a fossil fuel byproduct, became available in America and Europe. Indoor pollution is still a major issue in the developing world today. The best solution? Fossil fuel.

And now we come to the biggest fossil fuel concern of all—global warming. On this very sensitive topic we need to get our terms straight: There is a big difference between mild global warming and catastrophic global warming. We can all agree on that, right? The issue isn’t: does burning fossil fuel have some warming impact? It does. The issue is: is the climate warming dangerously fast?

In 1986 NASA climate scientist James Hansen—one of the world’s most prominent critics of the use of fossil fuels—predicted that “if current trends are unchanged,” temperatures would rise 2 to 4 degrees in the first decade of the 2000s. But as you can see from this graph, since 2000 the trend line is essentially flat—little or no warming in the last 15 years. That’s probably why we hear much less talk about “global warming” and much more talk about “climate change.”

For the complete script, visit https://www.prageru.com/courses/environmental-science/fossil-fuels-greenest-energy
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20 thoughts on “Fossil Fuels: The Greenest Energy”

  1. So the Kcal going down, and then barely going over (what I assume due to the horrible chart and scale) maybe 2 or 3 Kcal of where it started. If you wanted to spread pseudoscience, you should have only shown 2000-2010. You basically proved yourself wrong.

    Reply
  2. I don't entirely agree with this video. It uses the idea that "energy in general helps to improve standards of living and make environment cleaner" solely to fossil fuels, when in fact we can achieve the same goal by trying to build a long-term industry out of cleaner energy sources – solar, wind, tidal, geothermic, and nuclear fusion.

    Reply
  3. Most of the videos in this channel are correct but when they talk about climete change and fossil fuels they are very wrong.

    Reply
  4. #FAKENEWS

    Is this the best of conservative intellectualism? No wonder they have to go after the rural uneducated voters. Conservatives have sold their birthright. Do you idiots know what why air quality is so good? Because we legislated it. Do you know what it would be like without EPA and the Clean Air & Water Act. Look at China. Tell them fossil fuels make the air cleaner. They just need to burn MORE coal. What an absolute dishonest video. We can have differing views, even about the place for fossil fuels but to be so dishonest does not create a reasonable dialogue.

    Corporations have 1 mission to make as much profit as possible, they have no mandate to make the world a better place. Big oil must be reigned it through regulation or they will run amok.

    Google: "Oklahoma Earthquakes"

    Reply
  5. Humm…let's try putt "lungs related deaths (like lung cancer)" in the little graphic about CO2 emissions and climate-related deaths…
    Unless, of corse, that isn't neither a climate issue neither a fossil fuel correlated problem…'cause all the smog we see and breath are work of fairies (according to the CCP).

    Btw, notice that the graphs related to air and water quality are from data related to America only

    Reply
  6. You have to keep in mind that PragerU was funded by fracking billionaires and this guy gets payed to shill for Big Oil.

    Reply
  7. the title is kinda a contradiction in terms is it not , any company promoting fossil fuels as the greenest energy in this day and age wants serious looking into there future direction on the board .

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  8. cheap fuel doesnt mean good, in the case of the usa it just means greed for the fast buck and to hell with the future.

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  9. theres so much wrong with this this guy is fudging at the very lkeast and flat out lying to you at worst the fallacies abound here what a dick ,burning fossil fuels is the biggerst contributer to global warming and its accelarating as for burning indoors there were thousands of unintentional deaths in the usa alone from the 1990,s ,this idea is really bad news do you think we are stupid?

    Reply
  10. I make fertilizer in my back yard for free. Fossils fuels do benefit the poor but line the pockets of the rich to inumeral amounts of money. When we have the sun starring at us in the face every single day providing photosynthesis for every living plant on Earth it's hard to argue solar isn't the way to go as an alternative application. It's unlimited, literally. Natural gas and fracking cause disctruction and deaths, earth quakes and poison our environment making it un inhabitable for humans and animals. A pro fissile file chart can stair me in the face all day. But when I've seen and been a century into humanity's future I call all of you morons.

    Reply

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