I was amused by Ron Bailey’s recent trashing of Paul Ehrlich’s new book.

It amazes me how many people like Ehrlich there are. They see the doom and gloom everywhere, and blame humanity for all of it. To them, resources are static and rising populations and technology only make matters worse.

I’m more in the camp of these guys. I think that most environmental problems have been exaggerated, and that things are getting better all the time.

It seems to me that if one view represents that of starry-eyed ideologues, it’s that of a static world with limited resources being destroyed by technology and population growth. A cold, rational, empirical view if the last few hundred years shows the opposite: resources are being created, problems are being solved by more, creative, people; standards of living are improving.

It’s good, of course, to look for genuine problems and to point them out early. But, too many people assume that the problems must be addressed by widespread, severe, restrictions on human behavior; rather than by the creativity of free people.