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Capitalism and carbon emissions saves lives

By Jo Nova

Congratulations World!

Roger Pielke Jnr celebrates another great year where humanity had a near record low in deaths due to climate disasters.

He reminds us of a paper from a few years ago showing that the richer we all are, the less likely we are to die from floods, cold, drought and wind.

When we adjust against GDP per capita we find that GDP itself is the big protector of humanity.

The best thing we can do to help Africans defeat climate hazards is not to send them solar panels, but to help them get filthy rich.

And anyone who cares about vulnerable people will be protesting at the reckless destruction of what was a cheap, efficient electricity grid. We will surely kill more people by reducing our GDP with unreliable generators, than we will ever save with solar panels.

Once income is accounted for, the apparent relationship between climate hazards and mortality largely disappears. In other words, economic development—not renewable energy—dominates human survival outcomes.

 

Follow the Science, girls and boys,

If man-made emissions do anything at all, the more we emit the lower the death rates are. We can see that as man […]

January 3rd, 2026 | Tags: , | Category: Global Warming | Print This Post Print This Post | |

Economic growth is not the bogeyman — Rich nations have a cleaner better environment

By Jo Nova

Rich nations protect the Earth

Despite the UN blaming the rich nations for destroying the planet, the data shows that wealthy nations have cleaner air and water and less deforestation.

A team at Yale compile a score called the Environmental Performance Indicator. It tracks 58 factors like biodiversity, species protection, particulates in air, pollution in water, forest integrity and fish stocks. It also, sadly, considers “climate change mitigation” measures — which no doubt adds some pointless noise to the line. But the underlying trend is clear. The only countries in the highest ranks of Environmental Performance are the ones with a GDP per capita higher than $30,000 US.

Possibly the best thing we could do for the environment is help poor nations grow their own economy. And the stupidest thing we could do is push unreliable energy onto the third world and deprive them of coal plants “for the sake of the environment”.

 

https://epi.yale.edu/

Obviously, anyone can raze a forest, and throw rubbish in the river, but it costs money to protect trees and plants, clean up waste, and filter factory chimneys. People who are hungry understandably, don’t care much about setting up […]

September 2nd, 2025 | Tags: , , , | Category: Economics | Print This Post Print This Post | |