Elon Musk defends fossil fuels as green energy backstop and calls climate change alarmism 'exaggerated'

The mystery guest of Italy's long-running Atreju conference turned out to be none other than Tesla's CEO Elon Musk, who gave a wide-ranging interview on various topics, not all of them tech-related. Not long ago, Elon was also hosted by the current Italian prime minister Georgia Meloni who, coincidentally, started the Atreju conference tradition as a place for debate and gathering of conservative parties and personalities.

Here, Tesla's CEO found a welcoming audience for his message that global warming fears are overblown. "Climate change alarm is exaggerated in the short term," he opined, adding that the alarmist attitude only stresses people out and destroys their outlook for the future.

Elon was not of the opinion that mankind shouldn't do anything to keep carbon in the ground in the long run, but rather that "we should not demonize oil and gas in the medium term." That's not the first time when Elon Musk defends fossil fuels as a backstop for all the green energy initiatives. Last spring After the Russian invasion of Ukraine which sent fossil fuel prices upwards, he said that "we need to increase oil & gas output immediately."

"Obviously, this would negatively affect Tesla, but sustainable energy solutions simply cannot react instantaneously," added Elon, and, apparently, hasn't changed his mind about the interim use of fossil fuels since. He also spoke in defense of nuclear energy at the time and said that closing Germany's nuclear power stations last year is "total madness."

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