OPINION/COMMENTARY

Back to Earth

For many of us, a birthday is a time to examine our successes and failures while we decide where we should go from here. Let’s keep that in mind as we mark the 35th Earth Day. In fact, before you read any more, do yourself a favor. Have a drink from the tap. Take a deep breath. Maybe enjoy a healthy snack. Doing any or all of these things should remind you of truths we too often ignore: On the whole, our water is much purer, our air much cleaner and our food much more plentiful than on the first Earth Day back in 1970. You don’t have to take my word for it. Bjorn Lomborg teaches statistics at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, and he’s run the numbers. Lomborg, a self-described “old left-wing Greenpeace member,” was surprised at his findings. In his 2001 book, “The Skeptical Environmentalist,” he details the many ways in which our planet is becoming cleaner and safer. For example, “the share of people in the developing countries with access to drinking water has increased from 30 percent in 1970 to 80 percent in 2000,” he writes. That’s an astounding jump, made in the space of just one generation. Moreover, that increase occurred even as the planet’s population grew by hundreds of millions of people. As Lomborg notes, “this means that more than three-quarters of a billion more people got access to clean drinking water and sanitation” during those 30 years. Those people are also breathing more healthful air....

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