We have made a lot of progress in cleaning up the environment.  Air quality is now a lot better, on average, than it was 50 years ago.  In London, England, for example, blue skies  are now the norm, while just a few decades ago the infamous London smog was a frequent visitor and often caused the deaths of many people.  The air quality in London is now much better than it was before at any time since the height of the industrial revolution.

Living- and health standards improved.   Average life expectancies rose, for example in the U.S.A., from about 59 years for women and 52 years for men in 1930 to 79 years for women and 73 years for men by 1996. (Source: [1] USA Population Figures for the Years 1980 to 1996)

Yet, there is all-pervasive alarmism that the sky is falling and that we are all going to die.

A large dose of reality is required to illustrate how far we have truly come in a relatively short time and how much success we had in coping with what once, not all that long ago, were apparently insurmountable problems.

Portrait of an Unhealthy City: New York in the 1800s
From: Columbia University | By: David Rosner

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION | As New York City ascended from a small seaport to an international city in the 1800s, it underwent severe growing pains. Filth, disease and disorder ravaged the city to a degree that would horrify even the most jaded modern urban dweller. David Rosner, professor of history and co-director of the program in the History of Public Health and Medicine at the School of Public Health at Columbia University, paints a vivid portrait of a city in the throes of an ecological crisis….([2] Full Story)

And here is a video recording of a deservedly glowing report of the roles of human ingenuity and of exchange of skills and goods in human evolution, by[3] Matt Ridley at TED : TED - Ideas worth spreading.  It is one of the best presentations on the subject of human ingenuity I have ever had the pleasure of watching. ([4] Watch the video, 16 minutes)

Here is another video, this time of a presentation by Hans Rosling, Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institute, on [5] What stops population growth? (10 minutes)

Dr. Rosling’s presentation of dynamic graphs is excellent and very informative.  He ends his presentation with, “The only way to stop population growth is to have small families.”  That is technically correct, but it seems to me, going by the information contained in his presentation, that Dr, Rosling should have added the proviso, “and that can only be brought about by ending war and creating wealth for all.”

It should not be necessary to point out that the best and perhaps only way to create wealth for all is to make cheap energy accessible by all.  It is neither humane nor practical to keep a quarter of humanity in the dark, without access to electricity and refrigeration.

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Thanks for some of the links in this posting are due as follows,

• Portrait of an Unhealthy City,  [6] John F. Hultquist
• Video recording of Matt Ridley’s presentation, [7] pointman
• What stops population growth?, [8] chris y

Those links were provided through comments posted in a discussion thread at [9] wattsupwiththat.com:[10] The Three Chinas and World Energy Demand, Posted on August 13, 2010 by Anthony Watts, Guest post by Thomas Fuller.