The Miracle of Oil

Fossil fuels are routinely berated and blamed for every problem of the developed world – especially by our generation. At the annual Yale-Harvard football game, student activists rushed midfield to disrupt the game in the name of “climate justice” – demanding the schools divest from companies who use and profit from traditional fossil fuels. The students were praised on Twitter by Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other affluent, progressive alumni as “very brave and courageous” for “taking a stand.”

These Ivy League students are supposed to be our intellectual superiors. They will be getting high level jobs in the private sector and government as well as setting energy policy in the future. Instead of using common sense, they call for the utter destruction of the foundation of their privileged lives. Clean energy options like nuclear power are rejected because at the root of the climate debate is social change. They do not simply want clean energy; they want a fundamental change to the social infrastructure of America. They want to usher in socialism, state-enforced egalitarianism, and the rejection of traditional American ideals.

Fossil fuels have created an unbelievably amazing life for developed countries AND are exponentially improving lifestyles for those in third-world nations. Fossil fuels provide a cheap way to create innovation, heat homes and transport goods and people all over the world. They are the reason we have restaurants, nice homes, modern medicine, indoor jobs, central heating, and iPhones. Before fossil fuels, we lived in poverty, hunger, drought, disease and had “eco-friendly” lifestyles with 30-year lifespans.

When wealthy Yale students go off about “climate injustice” and demand “divestment” from fossil fuels, they spit in the face of tremendous advancement and a source of relief to a suffering world. We won’t always need fossil fuels. There is market incentive to be the first person to innovate a cheap, “clean” alternative; they will be extremely wealthy and remembered for all time. We should look for cleaner methods of energy, while still recognizing the need for fossil fuels. Never sacrifice human life for the sake of climate extremism.

PC: American Experiment.