Humanity has overcome far greater problems before and can do so again.
Young people across the world are terrified of climate change, according to a forthcoming Lancet study.
More than 45% of people 16 to 25 in the 10 countries surveyed are so worried that it affects their daily life and functioning.
Almost half of young Americans believe “humanity is doomed,” and two-thirds think “the future is frightening.” But while climate change is a problem, panic is unwarranted.
The data shows that humanity has overcome much larger threats over the past century.
In 1900, if humanity had gotten rid of air pollution—mostly indoor pollution caused by smoky fuels like wood and dung—the benefit would have been equivalent to global gross domestic product rising 23%.
To a young audience, that might look like an insufficient measure of well-being, but higher GDP means better health, lower mortality, greater access to education, and in general a better standard of living.
By 2050, the problem of air pollution will be mostly solved. And that’s only one of the many issues humanity has shorn down over the last 100 years, according to data 21 top economists and I gathered.
The challenge climate change poses, both to the environment and society, looks rather small compared to those humanity has already met.
Noble Prize-winning climate economist William Nordhaus has shown that a 6.3-degree Fahrenheit rise in world temperatures by 2100—which is probable if policymakers do little to stop climate change—would cost only 2.8% of global GDP a year.
The United Nations’ latest estimate puts it even lower at 2.6% of GDP for a 6.6-degree Fahrenheit increase.
Moreover, the U.N. expects the average person to be 450% as rich in 2100 as today, absent the cost of climate change.
Following current temperature projections, global warming would knock that down to only 434% as rich. That’s a problem, but it isn’t the end of the world.
Caring about the environment and human well-being doesn’t mean we should terrify young people about climate change.
Instead, we should encourage them to pursue innovation. That’s what saved humanity from much greater dangers in the past and what will help us now.
Mr. Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. His latest book is “False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet.”
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The whole world is’nt going to be sunk under the Ocean as depicted in that stupid movie Water World with Keven Kosner swimming around like a Sea Slug
Nothing lasts forever and that includes planet earth, however we really don’t have anything to worry about, because those who know, estimate earth has at least 4.5 billion years to go before the Sun dies and takes our solar system with it.
Now, I do not believe that will be the end of homo sapiens. That’s a hell of a long time before the Sun runs out of fuel and in that time, I have no doubt we will have colonised a new home (or two) on another suitable planet for us to go on to the next big challenge, getting on with each other better than we do today.
Those of us who are climate realists tend to concentrate on the fact that harmful climate change isn’t happening. Even the UN IPCC acknowledges that extreme weather events are not increasing. That is just a lie of the media and politicians. The climate change movement has even had to resort to altering temperature records to make a case for itself. What we realists often over look is what is demonstrated in this article. Even if harmful climate change were real, we could easily handle it. What we have not been able to handle is the damage caused by the climate change movement. This includes the green energy crisis in Europe.
Well said, David. The Green New Deal does nothing to prepare us for disaster. It would weaken us, instead. Bad idea when you consider China’s plans for the world.
I personal feel neither the UN nor the Lancet have any credibility.
They both are propagandists for the globalists and communists.
I guess it’s important to pay attention to what the enemy is saying and Yes they are the enemy of humanity.