by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow
As appearing in the Daily Sentinel
A Capital Research Center writer and investigative researcher named Hayden Ludwig published a column asserting that “If you’re alive today, you won the lottery.” He draws a stark contrast between the blessings of modern life, and the drastic changes in policies throughout the western world — policies that he says threaten those blessings.
Ludwig’s often controversial columns are fairly widely read, but occasionally deserve even greater attention. Today’s political climate is as divisive as ever in our lifetimes, and much of that polarization results from widespread disagreement about environmental issues, especially climate change and the policies advanced to combat it. Some of those policies would dramatically alter (some say diminish) the lifestyles of people who now enjoy the highest standard of living ever known. I continue to think climate science is evolving, and that these are issues upon which reasonable people can disagree. But it cannot reasonably be disputed that people are, in general, far better off today that at any time in human history.
We are nevertheless subject to a continuous barrage of news suggesting the opposite. It is at least implied that the Earth has reached its capacity to support life, that humanity is on the brink of starvation, and that we are running out of time to take drastic action to stave off the disaster. It is a view shared by most of the leaders of the free world, including presidents of the U.S., France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, and most other UN member states. Even Price William, heir to the British throne, recently warned that mankind has only a decade left to “fix the planet.”
