I just learned yesterday morning that the CEO of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, who was supposed to debate me next Tuesday at the 20,000 person Collision Conference, has withdrawn.
He gave no explanation to the organizers and certainly did not give me the courtesy of an apology–even though my team has been preparing for this event for weeks.
This is just the latest example of the bankruptcy of the opponents of fossil fuels.
Since the publication of *The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels*, not one person has written a remotely plausible fundamental critique of the book.
Why? Because it’s not reputable?
Impossible.
*The Moral Case* has been reviewed favorably by dozens of publications (including the WSJ), it has a 4.7 rating across hundreds of reviews on Amazon (very unusual for a book this controversial), it was a NYT and WSJ bestseller, and one of the most respected political commentators of the last 25 years named me “most original thinker of the year” because ofmy reframing of the climate issue.
Almost no opponents challenge *The Moral Case* because they don’t want to *confront a good argument*. Their interest is not the discovery of the policies that will advance human flourishing, it is the status/approval they get by being leaders of a mainstream crusade.
Since the publication of *The Moral Case*, whenever opponents have tried to refute me in live situations, whether through debates or hostile interviews, it has gone badly for them.
It’s getting harder and harder for me to find anyone prominent to debate me. Al Gore won’t take my $100,000 offer, Bill Nye The Science Guy is “the Silent Guy” when it comes to debating, and now Leonardo DiCaprio’s man is evading debating.
I have no idea what happened in this latest case (because he didn’t have the character to tell me) but it wouldn’t surprise me if some YouTube browsing made him conclude that he would be better off attending to “urgent” business far away from the debate hall.
I reached out on social to ask if Al Gore, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bill Nye The Science Guy, or (the latest “scientific” fossil fuel attacker) Neil deGrasse Tyson would be willing to step up, as I will happily pay for their First-Class fare. I proposed to Leo (since I know he prefers to fly on a private jet when it’s time to go attack fossil fuels) that I would pay $2000 for his (fossil) fuel.
No answer yet.
So what is going to happen instead?
The current plan is that I will be debating former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, Jr., who was recently named director of the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University.
Not who I initially wanted, but this should be an entertaining debate nonetheless. Remember to tune into the Facebook Live stream on the Planet:Tech Facebook page on May 2 at 12:30 PM CST to catch the debate.
Alex