My View Of A Naturally Useless Oil Sands Outcrop

By DAVID BIEDERMAN Pictured below is an outcrop (exposed section) of oil-soaked sand. Oil sands are naturally occurring mixtures of sand, clay, and a viscous type of petroleum called bitumen. The brown and grey layers are sand, sandstone, and clay; the black layers are the oil sands. What a contrast it was to hold this crumbling and seemingly useless mixture …

Fossil Fuels Make the Planet More Productive

We are often taught that nature provides us with what we need to survive, and that our responsibility is to use this bounty in a “sustainable” way. But the truth is that nature doesn’t give us the wealth we need to survive: we have to create it—and, thanks in large part to the fossil fuel industry, we have created so …

Environmentalist Policies Continue to Increase Electricity Costs

Electricity is a force for so much human good that one hundred years ago it was called “the great emancipator of the toiler.” Today, in the comfort of our homes, and with the flip of a switch, we turn on the lights, run our household appliances, access a world of knowledge and entertainment through electronic devices and the internet, and …

New Yorkers Turn Their Backs on Progress with Fracking Ban

In December of 2014, New York State (NYS) Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a statewide ban on hydraulic fracturing (fracking), following a presentation made by the state’s health commissioner Howard Zucker, who is quoted by the Syracuse News as stating “We don’t have the evidence to prove or disprove the health effects, but the cumulative concerns of what I’ve read gives …

Your Clothes Are Fracked!

Petrochemical products–materials derived from the processing of petroleum oils and gases–are so abundant in modern life that they often go unnoticed. This may explain embarrassing situations such as when protesters, clothed in materials and fibers derived from petroleum, claim that hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is unnecessary and should be banned—a situation that once prompted Alex Epstein to point out “your clothes …

Children Die While Greenpeace Obstructs Human Centric Scientific Progress

Dr. Patrick Moore, ecologist, and former president of Greenpeace Canada, explains that “UNICEF estimates about 25% of child deaths [worldwide] are due to vitamin A deficiency [VAD], which is about 2 million per year. This all happens quietly while poor mothers and fathers look on helplessly.” VAD is prevalent among malnourished populations subsisting primarily on rice–which does not contain the …

Gasoline Brings Families Together This Holiday Season

The holiday season is one of the most traveled times of the year in the United States, and this year, “more Americans will join with friends and family to celebrate the holidays and ring in the New Year than ever before” states Marshall L. Doney of the American Automobile Association (AAA). These happy reunions are made possible by vehicles that …

Greenpeace’s Co-Founder, Sustainability, and the Keystone XL Pipeline

When co-founder and former leader of Greenpeace, Patrick Moore, wrote that he had “come out in favor” of the Keystone XL Pipeline, he did so on the grounds that petroleum-based fuels sustain modern civilization. As Moore, explains: There are more than one billion automobiles and millions more buses, trucks, trains and aircraft that cannot operate without oil. Without oil, economies …

Good News! Colder Weather Drives Energy-Related CO2 Emissions Higher

“Colder weather drives forecast of 2014 energy-related CO2 emissions 1.1% above 2013 level” reads the Federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) headline. The EIA explains that “total energy use and CO2 emission for the first six months of 2014” increased when “compared with the same period the year before,” as Americans increased heat and power usage to confront weather which was …