Demography Is the Real Cause for Anxiety

Rav Noach Weinberg ztz”l was fond of saying, “In an insane world, Torah society is the least insane of all.” It behooves us to reflect from time to time on the extent of the insanity from which Torah protects us, even if our adherence as a society is imperfect.

Consider, for instance, the alarmism that surrounds global warming. Most people, if asked what the greatest threat to sustained human life is, would answer: climate change. In 2017, the American Psychological Association identified “a chronic fear of environmental doom” or “eco-anxiety,” as a major cause of youthful anxiety and depression. Today’s young adults have grown up on a steady stream of doomsday predictions, such as the Washington Post headline dated October 17, 2018: “The World Has Just Over a Decade to Get Climate Change Under Control, U.N. Scientists Say.” Of course, one could have read the same pronouncement from the AP in June 1989, nearly 20 years earlier: “[We] have a ten-year window of opportunity to solve the greenhouse effects before it goes beyond human control,” said the UN official.

While there is no necessary connection between environmental alarmism and fears of overpopulation, a strong streak of hostility to human beings as destroyers of the natural order is generally found among climate alarmists. Human economic activity, resulting in increased carbon emissions, threatens mankind with extinction, according to the alarmists. AOC’s Green New Deal, which would dramatically reduce economic activity, is representative of the genre.

Yet as environmentalist Michael Shellenberger establishes in his new book Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All, it is material and technological progress that is the crucial determinant of dramatic improvements in the human environment and resilience to climate change. The largest sources of global pollution are the poorest countries, whose people still rely on wood and coal for cooking and heating.