To make intelligent decisions about the future of energy, we need to think big-picture — to look carefully at the benefits and costs to human life of every course of action. Unfortunately, in today’s energy debate we are taught, with politically incorrect forms of energy such as fossil fuels, to only look at the negative picture — often highly exaggerated or taken out of context.

There are at least four common fallacies used to discourage big-picture thinking and breed opposition to fossil fuels. These are things to be on the lookout for when you follow the cultural debate; they are everywhere, and all four are used to attack what might be the most important technology of our generation: shale energy aka “fracking.”

1. The Abuse-Use Fallacy

The largest fossil fuel controversy today, besides the broader climate change issue, is fracking — shorthand for hydraulic fracturing — one of several key technologies for getting oil and gas out of dense shale rock, resources that exist in enormous quantities but had previously been inaccessible at low cost.

Read the article “4 Fallacies Fracktivists Use to Scare You” on forbes.com.