Many media outlets inundate the Internet every Earth Day with lists of environmental threats facing the world, ignoring the immense environmental progress that has actually been made.
This Earth Day, The Daily Caller News Foundation takes a look at the uplifting environmental stories that environmentalists don’t want you to hear.
1: American Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions Have Fallen
Total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions have dropped by 1,022 million tons, making them significantly lower than their peak in 2007. CO2 emissions have sharply declined in 47 states and Washington, D.C., according to both Scientific American and the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The amount of U.S. CO2 emissions per dollar of economic output has declined 28 percent since 1990, according to data from the EIA.
This trend was especially evident in states that quickly switched from coal to natural gas fired electricity, since gas emits far less CO2. Studies show that fracking for natural gas is responsible for almost 20 percent of the decline in CO2 emissions, while solar power is responsible for a mere 1 percent of the decline. For every ton of CO2 cut by solar power, fracking cut 13 tons.
Much of the decline in CO2 emissions is because the US is now the most energy-efficient economy in history, according to the EIA.
2: Fewer Species Are Going Extinct In America
Despite claims by environmentalists, rates of species extinction have been declining in America.
The primary cause of species extinctions over the past five centuries is due to invasive species, not habitat loss.
Much of the damage has already been done and therefore is unlikely to get much worse. Over the past 500 years, we know of 77 mammal species and and 140 bird species that have gone totally extinct, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Almost all of these species were located on islands, and were therefore much more vulnerable to invasive species. For example, Hawaii has lost 70 species of bird since contact occurred, which is dramatically more than the rest of the world. Hawaii’s extinctions were caused entirely be invasive species, not economic explotion.
3: There’s Less Pollution Than Ever Before
Air pollution in general has sharply declined in the world’s most developed countries. Use of dangerous pollutants that were damaging Earth’s ozone layer, like methyl chloroform, halons and chlorofluorocarbons, have rapidly declined.
The gases environmentalists are worried about today are odorless, invisible and harmless to humans in most cases.
4: We’re Using Water More Efficiently
Environmental groups, like The Sierra Club, and media outlets constantly claim that the world is running out of water, but this simply isn’t true.
Water usage estimates have a long history of grossly overestimating water demand, as the world is currently using half as much water as experts had projected 30 years before.
Industrialized countries, like America, are using water more efficiently than ever before and finding ways to effectively increase the global supply of freshwater.
5: We’re Not Actually Running Out Of Resources
Economists point out that humans have a long history of meeting mankind’s material needs by finding more resources or developing adequate substitutes for those that do begin to deplete.
The best example of this would be oil, the production of which numerous academics predicted would peak. As early as 1919, major academic publications like Scientific American predicted that the world would run out of oil in 20 years, likely causing a global economic meltdown.
Such predictions have been consistently wrong ever since. Proven American oil and natural gas reserves are at their highest levels since 1972 and they continue to grow year after year. American oil production in 2014 was 80 percent higher than in 2008. In fact, there is currently too much oil on the market.
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