Message about my different views than many others on fossil fuels and nuclear John Shanahan December 20, 2019 A friend said that I have "different views" about man-made global warming, fossil fuels, and nuclear energy. Yes, my views are different than many people. “Different” can have a negative connotation. I think that I’m closer to center-best-for-humanity-and-theenvironment than many. I've been working in the field, studying and teaching these topics since 1970, fifty years. A lot of this knowledge is stored on my computer, posted on the website, allaboutenergy.net and discussed in the newsletter. The newsletter is posted in four different places on Facebook, on LinkedIn and sent by e-mail to people in 121 countries. Most people get their views from TV, newspapers, radio, magazines, and in high school and university classes. Many of these sources are against fossil fuels and nuclear. I get mine from science and engineer experts with hands on experience. The book, ENERGY AND CIVILIZATION A HISTORY by Vaclav Smil opens with the sentence: "Energy is the only universal currency: one of its many forms must be transformed to get anything done." Paper currencies are essentially like make-believe Monopoly money. This is especially true when countries spend a lot more than they produce in their economies, like in the USA. The U.S. Public National Debt zoomed from 1 to 22 Trillion Dollars since 1980. These numbers are staggering, incomprehensible to most. The Dollar is as good as Dead except for the country who "bought" most of our debt. That country is China and it can't afford to let our currency die. So, China must keep the American currency alive for some more years. It’s a Make-Believe situation. The only real currency is energy from fossil fuels and nuclear. Anti-fossil fuel and anti-nuclear non-profits and the politicians they support want to "keep these critical energy sources in the ground." Then, we will get much less work done. We might as well be dead. Until now, the two major energy sources for getting the work done have been: 1) Food for free humans, slaves and animals so they can do work. The food was produced by energy from the sun. 2) Fossil fuels have enabled the world to a lot more work done and usher in the magnificent modern era. Many people say that we must get rid of meats, modern agriculture and fossil fuels because they produce "a pollutant," carbon dioxide. This idea is abhorrent to me. It will kill billions of people and stop modern civilization dead in its tracks. Carbon dioxide is non-toxic at any historic atmospheric level. It is an essential molecule of life. 1
I am different. I want to keep using fossil fuels, modern agriculture, etc. I want clean water, air and land. I want to preserve wilderness, wildlife habitat and biodiversity. We don’t need cities and farms everywhere, killing off most wildlife, having only monoculture farms. I want nuclear energy as soon as possible for everyone qualified to use it. If Switzerland, France and Japan can do it, so can most others. Technology and reasonable government, industry and individual management can solve most problems. Thanks for reminding me that I have different views. It inspired me to tell my story in words and pictures. The result are here. I care passionately about the beauty in the good pictures and the problems in the bad pictures. I don't give a damn about the UN IPCC and COP25 global warming doomsday alarms. Carbon dioxide is a molecule of life, not a pollutant that the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council and certain political parties in North America and Europe want to stop producing from use of fossil fuels. I don't want to give up my mobility from my gasoline powered car or abandon my house and computer for a log cabin with no electricity. Fifty years of anti-fossil fuels and anti-nuclear lobbying by the abovementioned organizations is the same for me as if Russia launched an all-out nuclear war on the USA. Either way, we'd be dead. Thanks for the inspiration. I don't think I will have writer's block anytime soon again. Much of the population in Europe and North America and most of the youth in those regions want the world to stop using of fossil fuels and nuclear. That would result in suffering and death of billions of people and destruction of a lot of the environment.
Yes, I'm different. I want to keep the modern world and make it better with fossil fuels and nuclear. It’s the only way to get all the work done that needs to be done. John A. Shanahan Civil Engineer Editor, website: allaboutenergy.net Denver, Colorado, USA Tel. (USA) 303 399 0393 E-mail: john.shanahan@allaboutenergy.net 2