Fossil Future cover art

Fossil Future

Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas--Not Less

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Fossil Future

By: Alex Epstein
Narrated by: Alex Epstein
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

 The New York Times bestselling author of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels draws on the latest data and new insights to challenge everything you thought you knew about the future of energy

For over a decade, philosopher and energy expert Alex Epstein has predicted that any negative impacts of fossil fuel use on our climate will be outweighed by the unique benefits of fossil fuels to human flourishing--including their unrivaled ability to provide low-cost, reliable energy to billions of people around the world, especially the world’s poorest people.

And contrary to what we hear from media “experts” about today’s “renewable revolution” and “climate emergency,” reality has proven Epstein right:

  • Fact: Fossil fuels are still the dominant source of energy around the world, and growing fast—while much-hyped renewables are causing skyrocketing electricity prices and increased blackouts.
  • Fact: Fossil-fueled development has brought global poverty to an all-time low.
  • Fact: While fossil fuels have contributed to the 1 degree of warming in the last 170 years, climate-related deaths are at all-time lows thanks to fossil-fueled development.

    • What does the future hold? In Fossil Future, Epstein, applying his distinctive “human flourishing framework” to the latest evidence, comes to the shocking conclusion that the benefits of fossil fuels will continue to far outweigh their side effects—including climate impacts—for generations to come. The path to global human flourishing, Epstein argues, is a combination of using more fossil fuels, getting better at “climate mastery,” and establishing “energy freedom” policies that allow nuclear and other truly promising alternatives to reach their full long-term potential.

    Today’s pervasive claims of imminent climate catastrophe and imminent renewable energy dominance, Epstein shows, are based on what he calls the “anti-impact framework”—a set of faulty methods, false assumptions, and anti-human values that have caused the media’s designated experts to make wildly wrong predictions about fossil fuels, climate, and renewables for the last fifty years. Deeply researched and wide-ranging, this book will cause you to rethink everything you thought you knew about the future of our energy use, our environment, and our climate.     Engineering Politics & Government Paleontology Natural History Thought-Provoking

    Listeners also enjoyed...

     Principles of Economics cover art
    Not Zero cover art
    False Alarm cover art
    Apocalypse Never cover art
    Unsettled cover art
    Broken Money cover art
    The Fiat Standard cover art
    Race Marxism cover art
    The White Pill cover art
    Brighter cover art
    Fake Invisible Catastrophes and Threats of Doom cover art
    Check Your Financial Privilege cover art
    The New Puritans cover art
    Social Justice Fallacies cover art
    An Immigrant's Love Letter to the West cover art
    Climate Matters cover art
    All stars
    Most relevant
    This book is an objective presentation of the value of energy sources based on the standard of human flourishing.

    The great value of the book is that it leads you through well-paced arguments which follow from previous conclusion. After reading this I have the sense that Epstein respects my thought-process since he does not go for the easy path by first choosing that fossil fuels are the best and then arguing for them, but rather he lays the framework that lead him to that conclusion.

    I regards to content I found his explanation of the “knowledge system” as compelling and quite interesting to understand why there is a disparity between what scientists conclude and what the media says. In addition I think that his vision for the future is extremely exciting and I wish that the book is a big step forward to this ideal.

    It is a great book if you like thought-provoking themes and if you like to tackle conventional themes from an unconventional point of view.

    A masterpiece in argumentation

    Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
    excellent well laid arguments (the philosophical training of Alex is evident in his method and delivery). Provides all the sources. Whatever your stand on this book is not only worth reading but thinking deeply about the arguments on it. Please read and share to improve the conversation surround this topic.

    Everyone should not just read but think about this

    Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
    answers many questions concisely and clearly. I speak about it a lot now because it shifted the way I think about energy.

    amazing listen

    Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
    An essential change of perspective. The sort that keeps you from dangerous and avoidable catastrophes

    Essential reading

    Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
    everyone should know both sides of the story, and this book presents it very well. we can't deny that where our civilization is today wouldn't be possible without coal, oil, and gas.
    we need to be mindful of how we deal with energy generation now and in the future so we don't compromise our progress.

    an eve opening book

    Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
    See more reviews