The modern world cannot survive and thrive without a productive petroleum industry
This is not a movement!
We are not going anywhere. We are the guardians of civilization. We stand to protect what we have, and what we built. We seek to share it with all humanity, not to sacrifice it in a fantastic effort to compel the sunrise. We cannot, will not reject the present in search of a better future. Tomorrow does not require itself to be ushered in. Better does not require space, better makes space for itself.
We believe in humanity
The technological achievements that we have wrought deserve to be enjoyed by all of humanity, not put away because of some fear or hope of the future. Cheap, plentiful energy means cheap plentiful food, and only the reduction of poverty and hunger in the world will lift the world up together into a new tomorrow.
Before petroleum, before the modern advancements it fueled, the world was a larger, deadlier, hungrier, colder, darker place. Solar and wind power are not the energy sources of tomorrow, they are the energy sources of yesterday.
Burning Oil adds carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Of course it does. All organic processes, all life, either convert oxygen into carbon dioxide, or convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. But so does burning wood, cow dung and dead bodies.
Solving the problems caused by our striving should be part of our effort, and should not be ignored. But rejecting the bounty caused by our success in order to avoid the problems it creates is wrong. Every advancement made by man was in response to a problem that had to be solved. To discard such advancements due to some effect, is to return to the previous problem, which would still be there, and be even worse.
Lets solve this problem. Lets all enjoy cheap, plentiful power, and cheap plentiful food, and live long healthy lives. And when the power source of the future comes, and it will come, It will be cheaper and more plentiful, than what we use today. We won’t have to usher it in. We won’t have to fight, it will make its own space in our marketplace, and will improve the lives of everyone who embraces it, without any compulsion or enforced scarcity. And until that new energy of the future is available everywhere, The energy of the present will be available to support the lifestyle of everyone else.
If we have to abandon our present to attain our future, then what we achieve is not the future... It is the past in disguise.
