Not So Bad

God is dead. Long live nature. These days, with church attendance falling in many parts of the world, people worship in a different temple — the great outdoors. Yearning for something sacred, many have made nature an ersatz religion complete with high priests and dogma.

To question that dogma — that Mother Earth is in bad shape and getting worse — is considered heresy. Among the heretics is Bjørn Lomborg, a Danish statistician and former member of Greenpeace. In The Skeptical Environmentalist (Cambridge University Press; 515 pages), he subjects virtually every green article of faith to scientific examination. The result is astounding. Natural resources, he concludes, are becoming more abundant, not less.

We produce more food per capita than ever before, so fewer people starve. Pollution in rivers, seas and the atmosphere is down. The world’s forests are not shrinking. We are losing few species, and many of those that were endangered are thriving. Of all the sacred cows only global warming remains unslain.

Lomborg still regards himself as an environmentalist but urges us not to view the Greenpeaces of this world as infallible. Indeed, some skepticism toward ngos would surely be healthy. Lomborg reminds us that many environmentalists have a vested interest in warning of imminent disaster, even when the facts don’t support them. If the eco-warriors are to play savior, they need a true ecological crisis. Lomborg shows things aren’t as bad as some campaigners would have us believe.