Did you know ... ?

Did you know that "despite claims that we are destroying the planet, Earth has been becoming a better and better place to live."

How is this possible? One reason is the increasing global penetration of markets, and contract law. The other is that "low-cost, reliable energy has enabled us to use high-powered machines to transform our naturally deficient and dangerous planet into an abundant and safe planet...Here are some actual statistics about the rapidly improving world we live in":

• The share of people living on less than $1.90 per day decreased 32 percentage points from 42% in 1981 to 10% in 2015.
• Global GDP has risen more than 7-fold since 1960, with GDP per capita increasing 3-fold during that same period.
• Between 1960 and 2017, global life expectancy increased by two decades from 52 years to 72 years on average.
• Infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births dropped from 64 in 1990 to 28 in 2018.
• The percentage of people using at least basic sanitation services went up from 55% in 2000 to 73% in 2017.

And what is the lowest-cost, most reliable energy source? "Fossil fuels are the only energy production process that can provide low-cost, reliable energy for the billions that have it and the billions that don’t."

Alex Epstein of the Center for Industrial Progress reckons these are "undeniable but little-known truths."

I think he's right on both counts. 

.