On this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan and Corey welcome author Alex Epstein to the show. Alex has written several books advocating for the use of fossil fuels, including his most recent work, Fossil Future. The self-described "energy-freedom advocate" joins the podcast to challenge the popular climate-change narrative and provide more context for the crucial role fossil fuels play in society.
Alex kicks things off by weighing in on the debate around climate change and the effects of fossil fuels. He argues that the benefits of using fossil fuels far outweigh the negatives and that, in many cases, energy can be used to overcome any adverse effects. Alex also breaks down the myth of unsustainability, the anti-human bias implicit in environmentalism, and the incorrect belief that more folks die of climate-related catastrophes today than in the past.
Next, Alex discusses his impact with politicians and lawmakers. He explains that 200 major political offices use his content to direct policy and become more informed on energy topics. Alex then shares his opinion on climate change, pointing out that we're currently in a climate renaissance and that the Earth has never been more livable for human beings. He brings up geoengineering as a way to cool the climate, asserts that the negative environmental impacts are severely overblown, and emphasizes the crucial role energy plays in the economy.
Finally, Alex talks about climate-change rhetoric dominating in elections, the harm that tech companies have done by blatantly lying about being 100% renewable, and why humans should take pride in the fact that we're progressing as a species and learning to use the Earth in new ways. He puts the anti-impact perspective into both a philosophical and historical context, noting that primitive religions believed "sinning" against nature had dire consequences.
0:00 Fossil-fuel benefits, debunking climate myths
19:04 Politicians, geoengineering, the economy
31:54 Elections, tech companies, historical context