With all the gloom and doom being pushed today, the title of this book is one of certain optimism. WUWT reader may recognize the author, Indur M. Goklany, a frequent WUWT contributor. I highly recommend his book, both for the positive outlook and for the factual discourse. – Anthony
Many people believe that globalization and its key components have made matters worse for humanity and the environment. Indur M. Goklany exposes this as a complete myth and challenges people to consider how much worse the world would be without them. Goklany confronts foes of globalization and demonstrates that economic growth, technological change and free trade helped to power a cycle of progress that in the last two centuries enabled unprecedented improvements in every objective measurement of human well-being.
His analysis is accompanied by an extensive range of charts, historical data, and statistics. The Improving State of the World represents an important contribution to the environment versus development debate and collects in one volume for the first time the long-term trends in a broad array of the most significant indicators of human and environmental well-being, and their dependence on economic development and technological change.
While noting that the record is more complicated on the environmental front, the author shows how innovation, increased affluence and key institutions have combined to address environmental degradation. The author notes that the early stages of development can indeed cause environmental problems, but additional development creates greater wealth allowing societies to create and afford cleaner technologies.
Development becomes the solution rather than the problem. He maintains that restricting globalization would therefore hamper further progress in improving human and environmental well-being, and surmounting future environmental or natural resource limits to growth. **Key points from the book** * The rates at which hunger and malnutrition have been decreasing in India since 1950 and in China since 1961 are striking. By 2002 China’s food supply had gone up 80%, and India’s increased by 50%.
Overall, these types of increases in the food supply have reduced chronic undernourishment in developing countries from 37 to 17%, despite an overall 83% growth in their populations. * Economic freedom has increased in 102 of the 113 countries for which data is available for both 1990 and 2000. * Disability in the older population of such developed countries as the U.S., Canada, France, are in decline. In the U.S. for example, the disability rate dropped 1.3 % each year between 1982 and 1994 for persons aged 65 and over. * Between 1970 and the early 2000s, the global illiteracy rated dropped from 46 to 18 percent. * Much of the improvements in the United States for the air and water quality indicators preceded the enactment of stringent national environmental laws as the Clean Air Act of 1970, Clean Water Act of 1972, and the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974. * Between 1897-1902 and 1992-1994, the U.S. retail prices of flour, bacon and potatoes relative to per capita income, dropped by 92, 85, and 82 percent respectively. And, the real global price of food commodities has declined 75% since 1950.
From the Back Cover
“This optimistic view of the impact of economic growth and technological change on human welfare is an antidote to the prophecies of an imminent age of gloom and doom.”
-Robert W. Fogel, Nobel Laureate in Economics
“Provocative, illuminating, sharp, and fact filled. Do you think that economic growth is a problem for the environment? Goklany will make you think again. Whether or not you’re convinced by his arguments, you’ll learn a ton from them.”
-Cass R. Sunstein, University of Chicago, author of Laws of Fear
“Goklany does an excellent job of refuting the global pessimists by documenting the dramatic improvements experienced in recent times by humankind, not only in the developed world, but worldwide. Goklany addresses a vast array of issues from the improving state of humanity’s life expectancy to his examination of the promise and peril of bioengineered crops. The vast breadth of Goklany’s inquiry is impressive, as is his exhaustive documentation.”
– Roger A. Sedjo, Resources for the Future
“A remarkable compendium of information at odds with the present fashionable pessimism, Goklany’s The Improving State of the World, published by the Cato Institute, reveals that, contrary to popular belief, it is the poorest who are enjoying the most dramatic rise in living standards. Refuting a central premise of the modern green movement, it also demonstrates that as countries become richer, they also become cleaner, healthier and more environmentally conscious. the full review
“In a book to be published next month entitled The Improving State of the World, Indur Goklany, of the Cato Institute, argues that the world’s state is, well, improving. He produces figures to demonstrate that chronic undernourishment has gone down in the past 50 years, we are living longer, we are healthier, the basic necessities of life are cheaper, literacy has gone up and so has educational attainment, economic freedom has increased and a larger proportion of mankind than ever enjoys political freedom. the full article
“Goklany’s essential message in his book, The Improving State of the World, is that the world over, more people are already, or are fast becoming, more blessed than they’ve ever been by a considerable margin. article
“What Goklany concludes is that massive progress has been made in so many areas as a result of the positive impact of economic growth, technological progress and more liberal trade. It’s clear that never have more people had access to education, health care, food, clean water and an improving environment.”
-Michael Campbell, Vancouver Sun
The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley is another recent good book in the same genre.
I’ll be buying this one. To understand the motivations behind the “… prophecies of an imminent age of gloom and doom,” I recommend “Tears of the White Man,” by Pascal Bruckner. Originally published in French, The English language translation is out of print so you’ll have to buy it used. Mr. Bruckner, a French writer, is one of the few people who can legitimately be described as an intellectual.
This is exactly what the alarmists, bedwetters, and envirofreaks do NOT want to hear. They do not like at all that we might be having a good time. We make our mistakes, but we are also getting better at fixing and avoiding them.
These are people who hate the idea that there are people out there, somewhere (they know they’re there), not doing what these people think they should be doing. The fact that the other people even exist bothers them – they are not conforming to their world view. Such people are never happy. They love misery and complaining, it can even be a lifestyle – the Whiners, to whom fun goes to die.
Also highly recommended is Matt Ridley’s “The Rational Optimist”. Best book I’ve read all year.
Wonderful! (and he posts here on WUWT).
I noted with some despair: “Much of the improvements in the United States for the air and water quality indicators preceded the enactment of stringent national environmental laws as the Clean Air Act of 1970, Clean Water Act of 1972, and the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974.”
Can’t y’all over there explain this to your fire-in-the-eyes enviros? (And I’ll try with ours…)
Thank you for featuring this book, Anthony. Thank you for writing it, Indur M. Goklany.
Dr. Goklany continues the tradition of legendary economist Julian Simon with a master work that is a must read for all. It debunks the doomsayers prophecies and arms the rational man with the irrefutable facts that the state of humanity is improving. If you have not read it yet buy it, you will not be disappointed.
Did not the gladiators in ancient Rome, get well fed housed and generally well looked after.
This is not about gloom and doom but it could be about deception. The key is to keep the wheat and blow away the chaff.
Man made global warming is but one scam, all part of a family and all with an objective.
What do farmers do, fatten calves and ears of corn!
The issue with me is that yes this is correct but are the motives behind it good and a mighty, we can do a hell of a lot better.
Awesome! And a good thing my birthday is approaching, because I will definitely be treating myself to this one. These are the kinds of facts that are so important to the debate, but aren’t always easy to find.
Hmmm, maybe Indur and Anthony could get together to make some signed copies available. 🙂
Globalization by free trade has proved to be good for humanity.
But, recent Globalization using government decree is a different matter. Think Carbon Trading. How can this kind of financial globalization be good for humanity?
Haven’t read the book yet, but I hope the author talks about the problem of the accidental and deliberate transmission of invasive species (such as the Asian Longhorn Beetle and West Nile virus) into new habitats that are a by-product of globalization. Is it possible for Mr. Goklany to comment on the subject in a guest post here? The net result from globalization may be positive, but some aspects are clearly detrimental.
Goklany gets it.
I am a fan of Julian Simon’s work. Indur’s book looks like it will be better by inclusion of more recent themes and evidence.
I just bought the electronic version of Indur’s book. (took 5 mins to get it).
Reading now . . . .
John
John
Everything is OK, we do accept it. It´s great!, however, what about the liberal fanaticism about: Abortion, stem cells research, drug liberalization, “non-reproductive” behaviors, population control, malthusianism,”Global Warming” scam, “Clima Change”, “Environmentalism”, pseudo “ecology”, NGO´s meddling everywhere against the right of a better living, against development, “human rights” for terrorists but not for they who defend us from it, “free from values” education, worldwide prohibition of traditional and eternal symbols of knowledge as the cross in schools, prohibition of religion at schools, generalized secularization, faked pandemias like AH1N1, etc.,etc YOU NAME IT!, what about these?
Why all these “Elevated Principles”are forced into the hearts and minds of our kids and more simple hearted people?; what about this?
Congratulations Indur Goklany. I’ve enjoyed your posts here on WUWT. Keep up the good work.
High time for more positive thinking in this depressing world, the pessimists have us outnumbered 10 to 1.
Ref – Charles Higley says:
September 29, 2010 at 5:23 am
“This is exactly what the alarmists, bedwetters, and…”
Charles we all start out as bedwetters, some of us return to that condition as we grow older, and for other reasons as well. Please don’t use this term again unless/until you know whatof you speak.
That is not globalization but global government.
Globalisation is about the erosion of nation states and the destruction of national sovereignty.
National sovereignty is derived from individual sovereignty. Sovereignty simply means freedom. Your individual sovereignty, your fundamental personal human rights, are under attack from globalisation.
Globalisation and the erosion of National Sovereignty is the stated agenda pursued by organisations such as the Council On Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Bilderberg Group.
They say, what you fail to appreciate, you stand to loose.
If the the people of the world fail to appreciate that the word sovereignty, actually means freedom, they stand to loose both.
The type of Globalisation pursued by the CFR and the Builderberg Group is the same Globalisation that was pursued by Adolf Hitler and is funded by the same intergeneration Nazi financiers. Now instead of using the Nazi’s they are using the UN, but the agenda is exactly the same. If realised, the consequences will be as bad, if not worse.
If realised, we will all quickly learn the true meaning of DE-CARBONIZATION.
This theme is a continuation of the view of J. M. Keynes, who was similarly optimistic – and 100% correct in his predictions of a better world through human innovation and ingenuity.
As Keynes pointed out, compound interest doesn’t just apply to economics, it applies to the human condition in general. Technological progress continues to accelerate. Human health, lifespan, and wealth are on an upward trajectory. Only 66 years after Kitty Hawk we landed on the Moon. In another six decades the world will be as unrecognizable to us as the Lunar rover, computers, antibiotics and lasers would be to the Wright brothers.
The only real problem is the conniving of intrusive, greedy governments, both national and international, who fully intend to confiscate the wealth of those who produce it by using constant railing about how “racist” and “unfair” it is for wealthy countries to actually *have* the wealth that their productive citizens have honestly earned.
The governments’ “solution” is always the same: to impose much higher taxes, and funnel the additional confiscated wealth through layers of government bureaucracies – which all get their cut, without producing anything of real value. The result is that the world’s poor only get a few crumbs from the table, if that – while unaccountable governments grow relentlessly, and individual prosperity and initiative stagnates.
Left alone, the free market will provide astonishing wealth and technological progress, just as it has ever since Adam Smith laid out the road map to greatness in his 17775 book, The Wealth of Nations.
I’ll be reading Dr Goklany’s book. He’s my kind of guy. The world needs his antidote to the constant drumbeat of doom, defeat and despair, which are constantly parroted for only one reason: to convince productive workers to open their wallets to the insincere, smarmy, smiling government opportunists who always have their eyes on our assets.
AGW sceptics were described in a derogatory way recently as ‘alpha male optimists’ which, by the way is a good description of every CEO or leader I’ve ever met! So I’ll buy into that.
Of course the world is much better.
cheers David
Without a doubt, the rise in CO2 in the atmosphere over the past half dozen decades has contributed to a corresponding increase in foodstuff production in countries like India and China. All these resourse-consuming people is what the elitists don’t want and every effort to curtail the benefit of energy derived from burning CO2-producing fuel along with the secondary benefit of feeding plants world-wide are apparently the tools they have in mind to control population expansion. Expletives describing their insular greed are numerous but suffice it to say their agenda isn’t hidden any longer. Nothing else makes sense.
————-
Smokey,
J. M. Keynes advocated inflation of the money supply (via the central bank mechanism of interest rate manipulation). He did so as an explicit mechanism for stimulating the economy in the short term by government as a means of directly controlling the economy. He was a supporter of some form of a centrally planned economy. In that regard, he was very much like the current many AGW supporters, ideological environmentalists and their political fellow travelers.
His famous quote in response to someone asking if his economic policies had a net negative impact on a nation’s economy in the long run went something like this, “In the long run we are all dead.” I do not find that in any way optimistic in nature.
John
Well said Enneogram (spelling)
Example Corporate windmills are a scam, a fraud upon the people. Saying that, does that make me a pessimist a “denier’. No it does not. Its pointing out the obvious. Similarly, Singapore is a beautiful prosperous place but who would want to live there.
Growth without freedom is not growth but a deception. Reminds me of those that used to breath sweet smelling pomanders to protect themselves from the deadly bad vapours.
Better energy, better food and better travel is a great goal and one easily achievable. Yes progress has been made and that is recognised and lauded but at what price?
Yes, but that’s the way it was. I would love to get all optimistic but I’m not even getting close. Dr. Golkany is not really up to date, he’s a bit behind the curve, like about 8 to 10 years. The only thing maintaining momentum right now is mounting debt! We’ve had a few spurts at economic recovery but its going at a snail’s pace overall. Spurred on by getting deeper into debt!
The people working to bring on the industrialized civilizations collapse have struck another, even harder blow. They won’t stop their goal of returning most of the planet to wilderness. But I sure hope they read his book!
Norman Borlaug is a good example. One of my great Heroes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug
The man went against the grain of Erlich and company.
Deserved his Nobel.
The average Greenie goes to bed with the gnawing fear of
healthy, happy _Prosperous_ dark skinned people…
Time will show if Globalisation as it has played out will be in the interest of the Western world in the long run. I think the scenario has played itself out and we cannot go on importing cheap stuff and exporting jobs. The crunch has come. How many more billions or trillions of Dollars can USA continue to send to China as payment for cheap goods, most of which is probably not really required? How many more jobs can the Western world afford to export? We cannot survive on bankers, accountants, truckers, shop workers and public sector workers alone. I think the party is over and unemployment will continue to be a real problem as jobs have been exported and public sector excesses have been allowed to continue beyond control. Even here in UK, if the Coalition manage to impose their £60 billion cuts the public debt will still increase by over £100 billion a year on top of the £trillion or so we already owe bond holders. I have no doubt Globalisation has been good for China. What about the rest of us in the long term???????