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Bonus Quotation of the Day…

… is from a book that I’m enjoying as much as is my colleague (and EconLog’s) Bryan Caplan: Alex Epstein’s hot-off-the-press volume, The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels; (this quotation is from pages 4-5; original emphasis):

As far back as the 1970s they predicted that if we did not dramatically reduce fossil fuel use then, and use renewables instead, we would be experiencing catastrophe today – catastrophic resource depletion, catastrophic pollution, and catastrophic climate change.  Instead, the exact opposite happened.  Instead of using a lot less fossil fuel energy, we used a lot more – but instead of long-term catastrophe, we have experienced dramatic, long-term improvement in every aspect of life, including environmental quality.  The risks and side effects of using fossil fuels declined while the benefits – cheap, reliable energy and everything it brings – expanded to billions more people.

This book by Alex Epstein is one that I will rely upon heavily in the class on the economics of sustainability that I’ll teach in the upcoming Spring semester at George Mason University.

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