Over the years of energy writing I’ve received many kind and supportive emails (and astonishingly few of the opposite – a few who took offence when I made fun of the cannabis craze, and a few scattered and enthusiastically brainless attacks). Thank you for all who have sent all those emails my way (except the potheads and the idiots).
A common theme I’ve heard is how to get useful energy messages out to a wider audience, how to cut through the clutter of energy disinformation. The general public knows almost nothing energy (I also learn something every day), and mainstream media is of little help. The industry has not helped itself, watching from the sidelines as misinformed zealots dominated public discourse for more than a decade.
Enough of that crap. Here is a book aimed squarely at those who are interested in energy but who smell a rat; those who know that something isn’t quite right with the overly-simplistic climate change narrative that fills the airwaves.
This book is therefore aimed not just at BOE readers, but also the “audience’s audience.” The hope is that this will be a book that can be recommended to friends and family outside the petroleum business.
Because it is aimed at a wider audience, the book walks through some things we in the business are aware of, like how dependent we are on fossil fuels, but also takes the analysis much further to examine how we’ve gotten to this weird place where many want to destroy that which keeps us all alive. The intent is to take a more global view of how we got to where we are, warts and all, and to offer plausible solutions for a way forward.
While it is important to underscore how thorough our reliance on fossil fuels is, we can also say the current trajectory is unsustainable. Not just of fossil fuel consumption, of everything consumption. Seven billion people are, in effect, a plague of locusts devouring everything in its path. All resources will become scarce at current rates of consumption growth; we as energy providers have a role in transforming from purely fossil fuel based to whatever comes next. We can and should be at the forefront of that transition, because we know energy, and more importantly we understand the multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure base that is required to provide and distribute energy. We know how hard it will be to change it.
We need to realign the discussion, to show the world that changing energy sources is an inter-generational project at best, and possibly much longer. We need to explain that there are differences in fossil fuels – that coal is not the same environmentally as natural gas. We need to demonstrate that emissions reduction progress means tackling the biggest sources, wherever they may be, and not the most convenient. Attacking the most convenient will only lead to picking sides, to tribalism and wasteful fighting. Which is where we are now, and it is wasteful and stupid and needs to stop. We in the energy business can redefine the narrative, and we have to. It is now part of the business.
There is a gaping hole in energy conversations and this book is designed to plug it, or start to. Polarization of opinions has paralyzed the country and is leading to bad decisions. By supporting this book, you will be taking a step towards breaking the logjam. At the very least copies will make a fantastic Halloween treat down the road, if you care about children at all.
A book launch event will be held in Calgary on March 5th or 6th, (probably 6th), at a downtown Calgary watering hole of some sort, from around 4-7 pm. If you are interested in attending and are of a pleasant disposition (although cranky people won’t be turned away, have to be realistic these days), please drop a note to terryetam@gmail.com and we will keep you apprised of specifics as plans firm up. Other launch events may be held elsewhere if interest is sufficiently high.
Thanks to all for the wonderful support. This stuff is important.
Click here for more detailed information about The End of Fossil Fuel Insanity
BUY BOOK HERE:
Amazon.ca (third party resellers only at this time)