World Not As Gloomy As The Media Would Have You Believe

It’s easy to believe that the world is falling apart while watching the news: climate change, political division, coups d’état, the global pandemic, Russia’s ruthless war on Ukraine, Hamas’ unjustifiable killings, and the Middle East careening toward widespread violence.

Before panicking, it may be worth stepping back to get some perspective. [emphasis, links added]

Media-driven fear demoralizes us — particularly when we’re young — and engenders terrible political decisions by crippling our ability to do better. …

Analysis of media content across 130 countries from 1970 to 2010 indicates that the emotional tone has dramatically and consistently become more negative.

Negativity sells, but it informs badly.

The same pattern characterizes climate change reporting. A pervasive and false, apocalyptic narrative draws together every negative event — ignoring the bigger picture almost entirely.

Last summer, for example, forest fires made headlines, but coverage largely failed to mention that the annual burned global area has been declining for decades, reaching the lowest level ever last year.

Likewise, deaths from droughts and floods fill the front pages, but we don’t hear that deaths from such climate-related disasters have declined 50-fold over the past century.

Climate-related disasters killed ever fewer in 2022 — 97.6% less than a century ago

Richer and more resilient societies reduce disaster deaths

and swamp any potential climate signal

Why is this not reported? Instead, media only delivers climate-doomhttps://t.co/MENddvnYYk pic.twitter.com/MwBG5NQ0gp

— Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) January 1, 2023

The data show what we all fundamentally know: the world has improved dramatically. Life expectancy has more than doubled since 1900. Two centuries ago, almost everyone was illiterate. Now, almost everyone can read.

In 1820, nearly 90 percent of people lived in extreme poverty. Now it’s less than 10 percent. Indoor air pollution has declined dramatically, and its outdoor equivalent has also done so in rich countries.

If we could choose when to be born, having all the facts at hand, few would choose any time before today.

This incontrovertible progress has been driven by ethical and responsible conduct, trust, well-functioning markets, the rule of law, scientific innovation, and political stability.

We have to recognize, appreciate, and proclaim the value, and comparative rarity, of each of these.

The constant barrage of negative stories may lead us to imagine that our forward progress is about to end. However, the evidence at hand does not support this conclusion.

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios indicate that, if not for climate change, the average person would be 4.5 times richer by the end of the century than they are today.

Climate change will merely slow progress, such that the average person will “only” be 4.34 times as rich — by no means the end of the world.

Yet fear pushes many to demand an inefficient diversion of hundreds of trillions of dollars to steer the global economy abruptly toward zero carbon emissions.

We need to foster an environment that challenges fearmongering and promotes optimistic yet critical thinking and constructive discussion about the future. …

If we stop being driven by fear, and instead look to the data and the bigger picture, we can see that the world is better than it was, and is likely to get better still.

We have a responsibility to adopt the very best policies to move ahead.

Read full post at National Post