The Skeptical Environmentalist

Deceitful Data

An accurate understanding of the world is critical in order to decide how to allocate our resources and efforts on a global scale. Unfortunately, our world-view has been skewed by a litany of misconceptions presented by environmentalists and doomsayers. These critics claimed, for example, that we are running out of energy and natural resources-an assertion that is demonstrably false. In fact, people today have more food and are living longer than at any time in the last century. For instance, in 1900 the average lifespan was 30 years; now it is 67. Also, poverty has been reduced more in the last 50 years than in the last 500, according to UN statistics, and this reduction has occurred in almost every country.

Flagrant exaggeration about environmental decline scares everyone and leads people to spend resources and focus attention on non-existent problems while ignoring real issues. Why do these groups continue to misinform the public? Well, for starters, they owe their very existence - and their funding - to the ongoing threat of these problems. In other words, the worse the problems seems to be, the more important the groups that study and oppose them...