"Believe it or not, the world is getting better. We just don't hear about it"

"With a torrent of doom and gloom about climate change and the environment, it’s understandable why many people – especially the young – genuinely believe the world is about to end. The fact is that while problems remain, the world is in fact getting better. We just rarely hear it.
    "We are incessantly told about disasters, whether it is the latest heatwave, flood, wildfire or storm. Yet, the data overwhelmingly shows that over the past century, people have become much, much safer from all these weather events. Indeed, in the 1920s, around half a million people were killed by weather disasters, whereas in the last decade the death-toll averaged around 18,000. This year, just like 2020 and 2021, is tracking below that. Why? Because when people get richer, they get more resilient....
    "But it’s not only weather disasters that are getting less damaging despite dire predictions. A decade ago, environmentalists loudly declared that Australia’s magnificent Great Barrier Reef was nearly dead, killed by bleaching caused by climate change. 'The Guardian' even published an obituary. This year, scientists revealed that two-thirds of the Great Barrier Reef shows the highest coral cover seen since records began in 1985. The good-news report got a fraction of the attention....
    "There are so many bad-news stories that we seldom stop to consider that on the most important indicators, life is getting much better. Human life expectancy has doubled over the past century, from 36 years in 1920 to more than 72 years today. A hundred years ago, three-quarters of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. Today, it’s less than one-tenth....
    "Despite Covid-related setbacks, humanity has become better and better off. Yet doom-mongers will keep telling you the end is nigh. This is great for their fundraising, but the costs to society are sky-high: we make poor, expensive policy choices and our kids are scared witless....
    "Humanity is getting more prosperous every day. The United Nations estimates that without global warming, the average person in 2100 would be 450% better-off than today. Global warming means people will only be 434 percent richer, instead. That is not a disaster.
    "Climate change fear is causing life-changing anxiety. You might be hearing nothing but bad news, but that doesn’t mean that you’re hearing the full story."

~ Bjorn Lomborg, from his op-ed 'Believe it or not, the world is getting better. We just don't hear about it'