I'm all for including externalities. My usual argument is if you look at positive and negative externalities, fossil fuels are a massive win.
People seem to struggle with positive externalities so the argument usually falls flat, and the situation is too clear to me to be able to spell it out easily. But without fossil fuels, 40-80% of the modern world would have been all but impossible. The knock-on effects of abundant cheap energy (and precursor materials to plastics) aren't being priced in.
People seem to struggle with positive externalities so the argument usually falls flat, and the situation is too clear to me to be able to spell it out easily. But without fossil fuels, 40-80% of the modern world would have been all but impossible. The knock-on effects of abundant cheap energy (and precursor materials to plastics) aren't being priced in.