Is the world becoming worse?

First, the bad news. The world is running out of scarce resources and none will be left for our children. The seas and rivers are polluted, and the air we breathe is toxic. Species are being made extinct, and we are losing biodiversity as 100,000 species disappear every year. Farmland yields fewer crops, threatening famine and starvation in poorer countries, and deforestation is rampant. Overpopulation is straining our resources and impoverishes us. Out little blue and white marble, insignificant in the black void, is at capacity and rapidly losing the ability to sustain us and other living creatures.

The good news is that absolutely none of the above it true. None of it.  

"Our species is better off in just about every measurable material way," Julian Simon reported.

“Raw materials - all of them - have become less scarce rather than more. The air in the US and in other rich countries is irrefutably safer to breathe. Water cleanliness has improved. The environment is increasingly healthy, with every prospect that this trend will continue.”

He calculated the observed biodiversity loss was more like one species per year rather than tens of thousands., and that the world is being reforested, not deforested. Farmland is becoming more productive, not less.

Far from becoming worse, the world is become better in a myriad of ways. Life expectancy is up, and child mortality is down. More people have access to education, and to safer and more efficient transport. Global poverty is down, and literacy rates are up. People have more leisure and entertainment options. They have better connectivity with others, fostering cultural exchange and understanding.

And for all the shouting of Greta Thunberg, we have not condemned the planet and its children to extinction. We have shown remarkable ingenuity in finding ways to deal with a build-up of greenhouse gases, and have shown there is no shortage of what Julian Simon called ‘The Ultimate Resource,’ - human creativity and inventiveness. Given opportunities for innovation, there are no limits to the improvements that people can bring about. We do not have to live more simply and become poorer. We can live more cleverly and become richer.

 Dr Madsen Pirie