Introduction to “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels” Toastmasters speech

Many of you know that I am a passionate Toastmaster, and that I spend a fair amount of time in Toastmasters-related activities, including preparing and delivering speeches at different Clubs in the Area I manage, as Area J2 Director, in District 59.

I have been wanting to deliver the final project of the “Technical Presentations” Advanced Manual for a while, and finally the time to do it has come. I am very excited about the speech that I will deliver in my home Toastmasters Club, EPFL-Unil Toastmasters on Tuesday August 29th, with the meeting starting at 19:00.

The title of the project is “Enhancing a technical talk with the internet”, and this blog post also serves as an introduction to the speech I will deliver.

The speech title is “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels”, exactly like the title of the book written by Alex Epstein and published in 2014.

This book had a very strong impact in my personal development in the energy field, a field I knew something about, but not anywhere near the depth and perspective which Alex’s book allowed me to develop. It has truly been a life-changer for me, and I will highlight some of my experiences and considerations during the speech.

I am fully aware that for some people just the simple idea of having the words “moral” and “fossil fuels” in the same sentence makes up for a big cognitive dissonance, so my challenge will be to challenge your knowledge and biases, such that you will be better able to respect and maybe understand my point of view, which very much mirrors that of Alex Epstein, a person I consider a role model for me.

I will leave you with a teaser of what the book is about, to create even more expectation about the speech. Or to enrage you even more against fossil fuels. Or both. It doesn’t really matter.

The only thing that matters is to have your brain fully engaged, and to respect the views of people, especially when they are very different than yours.

After all, it’s far too simple to be in agreement with those who share your same ideas. It’s not even fun.

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