Freedom From Climate-Related Death Risk

Every one percent increase in population corresponded to a 53 percent increase in climate-risk safety.

Our friend Bjorn Lomborg has updated his chart on climate-related deaths. Since the 1920s the number of deaths has fallen by more than 97 percent.

As the global population quadrupled over the century, the risk per million declined from 241 in the 1920s to 1.5 in the 2020s. This is a 99.38 percent decease. Adjusted for population size differences, for every person who dies from climate today, there were over 160 who died in the 1920s.

If the rate had remained the same over the past 100 years, there would be 1,928,000 climate-related deaths this year instead of 12,270. Our ability to innovate around climate risks has been astonishing as long as government policy does not counterproductively interfere.

The reciprocal of death is life. If something falls by 99.38 percent it means its the opposite has increased by over 16,029 percent. ([1÷ (1-.9938) - 1]) Thus we can say that life safety from climate-related deaths over that past century has increased by 16,029 percent.

This dramatic increase in life safety increased at the same time global population increased by 300 percent. Every one percent increase in population corresponded to a 53 percent increase in climate-risk safety. When human beings are free to adapt and innovate, they dramatically reduce risks and make life much safer.

We explain and empirically demonstrate why more people with freedom means much more resource abundance in our new book, Superabundance, available at Amazon. You can read more at superabundance.com. There has never been a better time to create more life.

Gale Pooley is a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute and a board member at Human Progress.