In this issue:
- A preview of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels 2.0
- Happy Thanksgiving
- The Human Flourishing Project: The art of self-experimentation
A preview of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels 2.0
I want members of my list to know it first: a new, vastly improved moral case for fossil fuels book is coming next year: The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels 2.0.
Here’s a PDF introducing the new book—and 10 new speeches I’ll be giving next year based on Moral Case 2.0‘s cutting-edge research, analysis, and, most importantly, frameworks.
Happy Thanksgiving
Last year, flying from the West Coast to visit my family in Chevy Chase, MD, I wrote a piece called “A thought for Thanksgiving.” I want to share it again since many readers said they found it meaningful.
I hope you have a joy-filled Thanksgiving and join me in “thanking the people who contribute the most and are appreciated the least.”
As often happens, I am writing this week’s newsletter from an airplane.
An airplane is a good place to reflect on Thanksgiving because it is a magical form of abundance that is all too easy to take for granted.
Everything on this plane would be magical to someone 200 years ago…the sanitation system, the refrigerated drinks, the electric light bulbs—heck, the clean water—let alone this 13-inch iPad with an unimaginably bright color screen and an instant digital printing press magically powered by this keypad. Not to mention the ability to learn nearly anything and communicate with nearly anyone from 30,000 feet above the ground thanks to Wi-Fi and the Internet.
Why do we have this, when virtually all of our ancestors did not? Who did what to deserve this? These are questions we should ask out of curiosity, justice, and self-preservation.
Two answers are: freedom-fighters and fossil fuel producers.
Freedom-fighters, above all our Founding Fathers, created a society where we were free to think and to act on our thinking. All progress begins as an idea in someone’s mind. When those ideas are free to be acted upon and tested, progress is rapid. When those ideas are stopped, because some “higher” political authority finds them distasteful, progress stagnates. On Thanksgiving I will thank some of history’s great freedom fighters, especially those who stood on principle while being persecuted: Socrates, Galileo, and the signers of the Declaration who faced certain death if the colonies lost their improbable war.
Fossil fuel producers…well, I wrote a whole book on that. So I’ll just say that in all of human history only one group of people have answered the call to produce cheap, plentiful, reliable energy for billions of people—including for the millions (at least) who damn the industry while choosing its product. Nearly everyone in an economy creates some value to our lives. But I think it’s important to single out those who contribute the most while receiving the least appreciation.
Finally, thanks to all of you who read this newsletter and support my work on energy progress and human flourishing.
Six years ago I had a brand-new “organization” with virtually no money and no reputation. But from the beginning people believed in my approach and that has been building ever since. I’m fortunate enough to make a good living doing work I find very interesting and enjoyable. And to get an incredible amount of positive reinforcement from readers. When people speculate that I am overwhelmed with hate mail I tell them, “Actually, the world treats me extremely well”—and I am thinking most of all of readers of this newsletter.
Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you join me in thanking the people who contribute the most and are appreciated the least.
The Human Flourishing Project: The art of self-experimentation
On the latest episode of The Human Flourishing Project I discuss two thoughtful reader comments on my exploration of nutrition, both of which point to the value of self-experimentation to personal flourishing.
Visit our Facebook page and join in the discussion. And for the latest news visit humanflourishingproject.com where you can sign up to receive email updates.