17 surprising facts about energy
In 14 years of researching the big picture of energy, environment, and climate, I’ve learned many facts that the media never mention—even though few expert researchers dispute them.
These facts permanently changed my thinking about energy.
🧵👇
In 14 years of researching the big picture of energy, environment, and climate, I’ve learned many facts that the media never mention—even though few expert researchers dispute them.
These facts permanently changed my thinking about energy.
🧵👇
Fossil fuels are uniquely cost-effective: the only form of energy that can provide every type of energy need (electricity, mobility, industrial heat, residential heat) at low cost, on-demand, for billions of people.
1/17
1/17
After 100 years of vigorous competition from alternatives, fossil fuels provide 80% of the world’s energy, including over 90% of the world’s transportation energy—and are growing.
2/17
2/17
Only 1/5th of the world uses what Americans would consider a modest amount of energy. 3 billion people use less electricity than a typical American refrigerator.
3/17
3/17
Nuclear energy is the safest form of energy ever created.
4/17
4/17
Nuclear energy is the cleanest form of energy ever created.
5/17
5/17
Nuclear energy has become many times more expensive even though the raw material prices haven’t increased and the knowledge of how to produce nuclear energy efficiently has improved.
6/17
6/17
There is no low-cost, scalable way, in existence or on the horizon, of capturing CO2.
7/17
7/17
The anti-fossil fuel "green" movement claims to want to lower CO2 emissions at all costs, yet opposes the two most proven, cost-effective ways of lowering CO2 emissions: nuclear energy and hydroelectric energy.
8/17
8/17
Contrary to the idea that today’s designated climate experts have been "too conservative" in their predictions about climate change, they have been far too catastrophic—predicting a dramatic increase in climate-related deaths, when the opposite happened.
9/17
9/17
Climate-related disaster deaths have decreased *98%* over the last century.
10/17
10/17
Many leading "studies" claiming to prove climate catastrophe totally ignore human beings’ incredible ability to adapt to and master negative climate changes.
11/17
11/17
Despite claims that the world is “too hot,” cold-related deaths far exceed heat-related deaths.
12/17
12/17
The “greenhouse effect” is a diminishing effect: new CO2 emissions have less of a warming impact than earlier CO2 emissions.
13/17
13/17
The global climate system is near historic lows in CO2 and temperature.
14/17
14/17
We have no near-term mechanism of reaching even one fourth the historical high of CO2.
15/17
15/17
Life on Earth thrived in the past at far higher CO2 levels and temperatures than today's.
16/17
16/17
Planetary warming is concentrated in colder parts of the Earth—it is not truly global.
17/17
17/17
To learn more about these 17 surprising energy, environmental, and climate facts, go here.
alexepstein.substack.com/p/17-surprisin…
alexepstein.substack.com/p/17-surprisin…
My forthcoming book Fossil Future contains dozens of surprising facts about energy, environment, and climate. Here’s a detailed preview.
alexepstein.substack.com/p/a-detailed-p…
alexepstein.substack.com/p/a-detailed-p…
Follow me @AlexEpstein for extreme clarity on energy, environmental, and climate issues from a humanist perspective.
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