Journal of Geology & Geophysics
Open Access
ISSN: 2381-8719
+44 1478 350008
ISSN: 2381-8719
+44 1478 350008
Kathleen Hartnett White
Texas Public Policy Foundation, USA
Keynote: J Geol Geophys
Climate policies, now institutionalized, to eliminate human use of hydrocarbons risk loss of prodigious gains in human welfare achieved over the last 150 years. These unprecedented improvements in the physical parameters of human life were achieved through theoretical and practical/engineering advances in the geosciences. As a necessary condition of the Industrial Revolution, fossil fuels have vastly improved living conditions across the world. Energy is often an elusive concept to the average person and to the physicist. Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman: â??It is very, very difficult to get energy rightâ?. Natural energy system is now intertwined with man-made energy system. Rate of economic growth rose in lockstep with increasing consumption of fossil fuels throughout the 20th Century. Basic energy realities challenge assumed role of renewables (wind, solar and biomass) to supplant hydrocarbons within a few decades. Measures of energy density and power density reveal the contrast of energy systems based on diffusing massive store of versatile, reliable hydrocarbons versus concentrating diffused and variable renewable energy sources. The hallmark of hydrocarbon energy enrichment was a radical, rapid, and then sustained expansion of the productive powers of economy. For the first time, income gains accrued to the poorest and average worker rather than the already wealthy allowing the emergence of a middle class. Hydrocarbon energy as necessary condition of the human enrichment: Lifespan is three times higher, average income is ten times higher, natural gas fertilizer increased agricultural productivity by 40-60%. Fossil fuels provide raw materials for thousands of product. Mankindâ??s carbon footprint has shrunk manâ??s physical footprint on the natural world. Innovative technology dramatically reduced genuine environmental pollution in prosperous countries.
Kathleen Hartnett White is Distinguished Senior Fellow and Director of the Armstrong Center for Energy and the Environment at the Texas Public Policy Foundation in Austin, Texas. She is author of “Fueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy” released by Regnery Publishing in late May 2016. She is former Chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and has served on multiple other commissions and many public, private and non-profit boards to include the Journal of Regulatory Science. She is a contributor to The Hill and her commentaries have appeared in many national publications including Investor’s Business Daily, Washington Examiner, Forbes, Roll Call, National Review and Daily Caller. And she regularly testifies to US Congressional Committees. She is a cum laude Graduate of Stanford University (BA and MA) and held Post-graduate Academic Fellowships at Princeton University and Texas Tech School of Law.
Email: khwhite@texaspolicy.com