In this issue:
- Earth Day TV interviews
- Three fundamentals to keep in mind during the oil crash
- The case for ending lockdowns (and never imposing them in the first place)
- Earth Day: Shutting down industry and fossil fuels has made Earth worse
- Double Accelerator contributions, continued
Earth Day TV interviews
I apologize for this week’s newsletter being late.
I had a busy Earth Day with 3 new TV interviews covering a wide range of topics.
- National Report (Newsmax TV): Why AOC and others are celebrating the oil price crash, Earth Day (5 minutes)
- Cross Politic TV: The moral case for fossil fuels, fallacies used to attack fossil fuels, similarities and differences between climate catastrophism and COVID catastrophism (22 minutes)
- Stu Does America (Blaze TV): Earth Day, a pro-human vs. anti-human perspective on Earth, the cause of false environmental catastrophe predictions, an individualistic approach to COVID-19 (15 minutes)
This Sunday the popular Candace Owens Show will feature an interview with me on fossil fuels.
I’m planning on doing more and more TV interviews (thanks to Accelerators for helping make this possible). Please feel free to recommend me to or connect me with any shows you think I’d be a good fit for.
Three fundamentals to keep in mind during the oil crash
I know many readers of this newsletters are acutely affected by the oil price crash.
I don’t have any magic answers, but there are three fundamental truths that I keep in mind.
- Low-cost energy is still essential to human flourishing.
- Fossil fuels are still essential to producing low cost energy for billions of people.
- The benefits of fossil fuels still far outweigh the side effects.
Priority number one has to be ending the lockdown of America (my next story).
I discussed these fundamentals at the end of this week’s Power Hour and on the “Fat Guy with a Mic” podcast (hosted by longtime oil and gas industry recruiter Jason Dedic).
The case for ending state lockdowns (and never imposing them in the first place)
This week’s Power Hour features a 2-hour interview with philosopher Onkar Ghate, focusing on why lockdowns were never a necessary or proper response to COVID-19.
Dr. Ghate, “Chief Philosophy Officer” at the Ayn Rand Institute and a longtime colleague (and mentor) of mine, has been doing some great work on what a truly American, pro-freedom, approach to infectious diseases looks like.
Some topics we covered include:
- We need objective, clearly defined laws specifying and limiting the power of government in regard to infectious diseases.
- Why Sweden has more American infectious disease laws than America does.
- How clearly defined laws lead to better preparedness by government, industry, and individuals.
- Why more profit-making in the health care system is key to scaling capacity.
- How governments have failed to do their proper job of identifying and isolating infectious individuals.
- How far greater transparency from government would empower a free people to make rational decisions.
- The right way to handle potential hospital capacity shortages.
- How the idea of “free” health care promotes irresponsible behavior.
- Why state-wide lockdowns were not the right policy with the evidence we had.
- Why lockdowns were a panic-based, not reason-based policy that should be removed as quickly as possible.
- How governments should make policy and communicate to citizens going forward.
- Why now is the time to write to government officials—and what you should write.
You can watch the episode on YouTube here or listen to it on Apple Podcasts here.
Earth Day: Shutting down industry and fossil fuels has made the Earth worse
There is a common narrative that shutting down industry and fossil fuels has made the Earth a better place to live. Advocates of this narrative usually point to less smog in certain cities.
Viewing today’s Earth as better than it was two months ago, despite the massive decrease in human flourishing, is a classic example of only looking at the negative impacts of industry and fossil fuels, while ignoring the massive positives.
On an interview on NewsMax TV this morning I explained how industry and fossil fuels make the Earth much better—and how shutting them down makes it worse.
I had a more extensive discussion on the issue on Stu Does America. Host Stu Bruguiere has an unusually good understanding of the “human flourishing” perspective on Earth and ended up raising a lot of good issues.
Thanks to all the readers of this newsletter for your continued interest in my work.
To Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Energy,
Alex