I recently shared a conference podium with Alex Epstein of the Center for Industrial Progress, author of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels. He argues persuasively that our use of technology and energy has transformed the natural environment into a livable one. “Most of the natural world is too hot, too cold, has too much rainfall, or not enough,” he begins. “Then there’s bacteria-filled water, disease-carrying insects, tornadoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis, to name just a few of nature’s unpleasant features.”
Despite nature’s inhospitable side, most of us now live in a world that is astonishingly comfortable compared to that inhabited by our ancestors. Think about the drudgery that filled the lives of a vast majority of people in past generations, working from sunup to sundown to eke out a bare living from marginal farms, chopping wood, hauling water, milking cows, and dying young by today’s standards.
Then consider how the availability of affordable energy has freed us from the pattern that had changed so little for centuries. Even in large cities like Los Angeles or Denver, the air is cleaner than it has been in decades. Rivers once so clogged with raw sewage and waste that they could catch fire are now clean. That doesn’t mean the job is complete, of course. In some parts of the world, people still have to breathe air polluted by indoor fires needed for heat, and millions still drink raw water tainted with disease. But as strange as it may seem, the safest and healthiest places on Earth are industrialized countries.
In the U.S., we have drained swamps and reclaimed flooded lands. We have built high-density housing, insulation, heating and air conditioning, cars, trucks, roads, airports, and harbors to bring products that increase our comfort. We have turned dry deserts into lush farmland, partly by developing pesticides, fertilizers, and machines that allow two percent of Americans to grow the food for all of us, and to feed much of the rest of the world, with better food than ever.
We no longer risk death every time we drink water, and we no longer have to confine ourselves to homes close to rivers. Instead, as Alex points out, we live healthy lives in once-uninhabitable places thanks to the development of reservoirs, canals, pipelines, underground pipes, treatment plants, and indoor plumbing – all of which are still but dreams to much of the third world. We don’t walk down streets full of trash and animal waste (as Americans did 200 years ago), because of a highly-evolved waste management industry, sewer systems, recycling, and a consciousness of our environment that only wealthy civilizations can afford. We enjoy fully-stocked grocery stores in almost every town, and the joint miracles of modern transportation and instant communication allow people even in the most rural places to travel and do business throughout the world – as easily as people in New York, London, Paris, or Singapore.
The remarkably comfortable and productive lives we now live are the result of the discovery, development, use, and improvement of energy. So why do we worry so much, and even feel guilty, about our use of energy to build a better world? Americans have an almost pathological tendency to blame themselves and criticize each other incessantly. That’s why the famous 1990 Greenpeace ad in the New York Times was so effective, scolding, “It wasn’t the Exxon Valdez captain’s driving that caused the Alaskan oil spill. It was yours.” We love to psycho-analyze ourselves, and we tend to believe the worst.
Of course, opponents of energy production never mention the quality of life it enables. Directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing were technological breakthroughs of colossal importance, allowing the extraction of oil from entire regions previously unavailable. Development of ways to burn fossil fuels without emitting harmful pollutants is light years ahead of all previous generations. Automobiles now burn gas and emit almost nothing into the air, and we have every reason to expect that the march toward safer and cleaner energy will continue into the future.
Americans have always relied on constantly improving technology to better their lives, and their faith in the private enterprise system has never failed to produce advances in every generation.
Dr. Lewis Thomas once wrote, “We are, perhaps, uniquely among the Earth’s creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives, fearing the future, discontent with the present, unable to take in the idea of dying, unable to sit still.” Maybe that’s OK if it helps us get better, but we should also reflect periodically on the blessings of technology, and energy.
(A version of this column first appeared in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel June 19, 2015)
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