Fossil Fuels Are Actually Your Friend, So Be Happy [OPINION]

If you are reading this, you are using fossil fuels to do so. You can't claim that fossil fuels have done anything but make your life better and longer.

We have never lived without abundant and cheap energy in my corner of the world. Here in southeastern Massachusetts, we have always just thrown the switch and there was light. Little chilly? Turn up the thermostat. Feeling hot and humid? Crank up the air conditioning. Want to go somewhere? Drive the car, and if you want to go somewhere far, just stop at one of the hundreds of gas stations and fill up the tank and off we go.

My whole life, I could eat food cooked on a propane gas grill, in an electric-powered microwave oven, or a natural gas-powered stove, or an electric range oven. The food was kept fresh in an electric refrigerator or the freezer section of the same unit.

I never wondered where the energy to power my life came from except when we took a school field trip to the power plant on Cape Cod. Or when we had no electricity.

In my corner of the world, we occasionally had power outages due to the weather. I remember not having electricity in the 1980s for about 10 days, and it was miserable. Even when we went camping, we brought tons of batteries or my parents plugged the camper into an electrical outlet.

If you want to live without electricity and gasoline and oil, be my guest. Give it a try. You will come running right back to civilization within a week.

Don't be upset at fossil fuels. They aren't destroying the planet for humans. They are making life possible for humans.

Chris McCarthy is the host of The Chris McCarthy Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon. Contact him at chris.mccarthy@townsquaremedia.com and follow him on Twitter @Chris_topher_Mc. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.