Hope For Humanity (ARC): Anti-human to pro-human environmental philosophy – Good stewardship and superabundant energy.

In this session, Alex Epstein and Marian Tupy discuss the concept of human stewardship of environmental resources. They address the question of whether good stewardship is compatible with abundance and human flourishing. Marian argues that the world is infinitely abundant, as evidenced by the fact that resources have become 98% cheaper since 1850, and that technology and innovation will continue to make resources more abundant. Alex challenges the assumption that the Earth is fragile and argues that humans are producer-improvers who add massive value to the Earth. He suggests that our environmental goal should be to advance human flourishing on Earth, not eliminate human impact.

Knowledge is infinite.… The peculiar feature of knowledge is that the more knowledge you consume the more knowledge you end up with and once you understand that you can understand why after 200 years of industrialization we have more resources on Earth than we did when we started.

"Without freedom of speech you don't have freedom of thought.… if some people are prevented from speaking and you cannot hear them then your process of developing your thoughts does not reflect or take into account all those ideas that you are prevented from hearing and consequently your freedom of speech is restricted."

The Hon Amanda Stoker is a columnist for the Australian Financial Review, host of the Sunday with Stoker program on Sky News Australia, and a fellow of the Menzies Research Centre. Previously, she was a Liberal National Party Senator for Queensland and served as Assistant Minister in multiple government departments.

Alex Epstein is a philosopher, energy expert, author, and creator of EnergyTalkingPoints.com. In 2022, he published Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas—Not Less.

Dr Marian L. Tupy is the founder and editor of HumanProgress.org and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity. He is the co-author of Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet.

More in the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship video.