Heartland Institute
President Donald Trump’s speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland was a breath of fresh air concerning the true state of the world—and a shot across the bow of crony capitalists and the public officials in bed with them. Trump made it clear the United States would not impose energy restrictions on its economy predicated upon the false assertion humans are destroying the planet, and neither should other governments.
Trump pointed to America’s recent economic growth, historic low unemployment, stock market gains, and trade deals, to tout the country’s economic success during his presidency.
“Today I’m proud to declare the United States is in the midst of an economic boom, the likes of which the world has never seen before,” said Trump. “America is thriving. America is flourishing, and yes, America is winning again like never before.”
Trump went on to say the peoples of other countries could experience similar levels of economic progress if their leaders would reject the doomsday prognostications of environmental extremists and the business and political interests aligned with them.
“To embrace the possibilities of tomorrow, we must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse,” Trump said. “They are the errors of yesterday’s fortune tellers, and we have them and I have them, and they want to see us do badly, but we don’t let that happen.”
Trump’s presentation came a few hours after young climate puppet Greta Thunberg gave an invited talk to the WEF in which she decried, in her simultaneously angry and plaintive voice, what she says is their inadequate action to prevent a supposed human-caused climate crisis. She called on the assembled world political and economic leaders to end the use of fossil fuels immediately.
“Our house is still on fire. Your inaction is fueling the flames by the hour,” said Thunberg. “Let’s be clear: we don’t need a low carbon economy; we don’t need to lower emissions. Our emissions have to stop. … [I]mmediately end all fossil fuel subsidies and immediately and completely divest from fossil fuels. We don’t want these things done by 2050, or 2030 or even 2021—we want this done now.”
Regardless of the cost in terms of human misery, one must assume.
At a news conference in Davos, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin responded by saying Thunberg should at least get a college degree before lecturing the world on what types of energy policies it can and should adopt.
“Is she the chief economist?” asked Mnuchin rhetorically. “After she goes and studies economics in college, she can come back and explain that to us.”
Who is right: Thunberg and those conniving adults promoting her as the face of and standard bearer for the need to end fossil fuel use to prevent climate disaster, or Trump and climate realists like me at The Heartland Institute and elsewhere, who study the science and economics and recognize, despite a modest warming over the past century, all signs point to the world getting better and better?
English science journalist Matt Ridley, Ph.D., recently wrote in the British publication The Spectator that the second decade of the 21st century was the best in history in terms of human living standards, despite purportedly catastrophic warming. Ridley pointed out that when he was born in 1958, 60 percent of the world’s population was living in poverty, whereas in the second decade of the twenty-first century it fell below 10 percent for the first time. Ridley also noted, “Global inequality has been plunging as Africa and Asia experience faster economic growth than Europe and North America; child mortality has fallen to record low levels; famine virtually went extinct; malaria, polio and heart disease are all in decline.”
“We are getting more sustainable, not less, in the way we use the planet,” wrote Ridley. “Efficiencies in agriculture mean … despite the growing number of people and their demand for more and better food, the productivity of agriculture is rising so fast that human needs can be supplied by a shrinking amount of land.”
A July 2019 study in the journal Global Environmental Change demonstrates even as the planet has warmed since 1980, mortality from weather-related events has declined sharply, with the decline being attributable mainly to increased wealth.
The researchers examined the incidences of climate-related hazards—flooding, extreme heat, and wind-related events—and found vulnerability to climate-related hazards fell substantially between 1980 and 2016, with global average mortality and economic loss rates having declined by 6.5 and nearly 5 times, respectively. The researchers also discovered “over the last four decades the difference in multi-hazard human vulnerability between poorer and richer countries reduced by almost 2.5 times,” meaning mortality linked to climate-related hazards has fallen fastest in the poorer countries experiencing some of the highest average growth rates.
The research is clear. Contrary to delusional climate scolds, economic growth is good for ordinary people’s prosperity and health. This is the message Trump brought to Davos, and it’s a message the world should hear and take to heart.
— H. Sterling Burnett
