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Rosling, Pinker and Gates are right to point out that there have been absolute improvements in living standards across the globe. However as Jeremy Grantham (t

Rosling, Pinker and Gates are right to point out that there have been absolute improvements in living standards across the globe. However as Jeremy Grantham (the British Warren Buffet) warns, these current improvements may have been bought at the expense of future losses as we have destabilized the climate and mined the soils to achieve the gains of recent years. Grantham projects 40% loss in soil productivity in a much more populated world. This is not to knock these fantastic advances, but we now need to double down on ensuring they are sustainable. Here’s Grantham’s paper. It’s a long but fascinating and wel-written read. https://www.gmo.com/docs/default-source/research-and-commentary/strategies/asset-allocation/the-race-of-our-lives-revisited.pdf?sfvrsn=2 https://www.gmo.com/docs/default-source/research-and-comment...

rco8786 8y ago
Added to my reading list. But I do find something interesting about your synopsis. Something that Rosling touched on in his book as well. And that is that people from traditionally developed countries look at the more recently developed countries and can only seem to point out that they developed at the expense of the environment...by burning coal, mining the earth, etc. conveniently forgetting that their own country previously did, and still does, all those same things! We look at CO2 production of China and India and its way more than say, the US. But if you look at it per capita it’s still nowhere near the US.
- GreeniFi 8y ago
  I can only speak for myself (originally from a developing country), but I would not have overlooked that developed nations spent down their natural capital to achieve their modern prosperity. Where did all the trees in Scotland go? I can obviously only speak for myself, but I wonder if it’s a strawman argument. Re CO2 production, as per Grantham’s paper, there is a radical increase in renewable energy supply taking place. It still only gets us 1/3 of the way to avoiding 2 degree warming.

rco8786 8y ago

Added to my reading list. But I do find something interesting about your synopsis. Something that Rosling touched on in his book as well. And that is that people from traditionally developed countries look at the more recently developed countries and can only seem to point out that they developed at the expense of the environment...by burning coal, mining the earth, etc. conveniently forgetting that their own country previously did, and still does, all those same things! We look at CO2 production of China and India and its way more than say, the US. But if you look at it per capita it’s still nowhere near the US.

GreeniFi 8y ago
I can only speak for myself (originally from a developing country), but I would not have overlooked that developed nations spent down their natural capital to achieve their modern prosperity. Where did all the trees in Scotland go? I can obviously only speak for myself, but I wonder if it’s a strawman argument. Re CO2 production, as per Grantham’s paper, there is a radical increase in renewable energy supply taking place. It still only gets us 1/3 of the way to avoiding 2 degree warming.