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Jewish World Review
April 17, 2012/ 25 Nissan, 5772
Silent witness
By
Paul Johnson
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
The world is becoming a better place. That simple fact is based on hard evidence that gives the lie to various pessimistic and gloomy prophecies made after World War II, none of which has occurred. Let's look at them in ascending order of probability.
The first which seems incredible now but was widely believed in the 1970s was the prediction that the world was entering an era of low temperatures. In 1970 it was predicted that by 1990 mean temperatures would drop 4 degrees and, by 2000, 11 degrees, which would put us in a "new ice age."
By 1990, however, the global warming scare was gathering pace, and by 2000 it had become the new orthodoxy. In 2000 it was predicted that by 2020 mean temperatures would rise 12 degrees and, by 2050, 15 to 20 degrees, resulting in a "global breakdown of unimaginable proportions."
But by 2012 some global warmers were hedging their bets, and others were backing down completely. The newly fashionable prediction is for an era of "highly variable temperatures," with "long periods of stability." Being less sensational, these new prognostications don't garner headlines or attract politicians' attention, but they are more likely to approximate the truth.
It's roughly the same story regarding the "population bomb," a product of the 1960s. At the time it was predicted that by the 1970s births would grossly outstrip food supplies, and deaths from starvation would run in the hundreds of millions. Nearly a decade later the projection was that by the mid-1980s there'd be a billion or more starvation deaths.
Though plenty of people do die of malnutrition, it's almost entirely a matter of poor food distribution. All famines are strictly local. In the final 40 years of the 20th century the world's population doubled, but per capita food consumption in the developing world increased from under 2,000 calories a day to 2,650 calories.
Malnutrition is still about 15% in poor countries, but that's a fall from 40% in the 1960s. Almost all deaths from the failure of food supplies arise from the interruptions caused by small-scale local wars. The international agencies that handle famines are well able to cope with local food shortfalls, provided warlords, rebels, terrorists and rioters allow them to get their trucks through.
Until the third quarter of the 20th century the great majority of deaths from starvation occurred in two countries: India and China. This is no longer true. Both countries have made gigantic strides over the last 20 years since adopting capitalist-style economic policies. Every year tens of millions of Indians and Chinese now join the ranks of the middle class.
This is a key event, one likely to have enormous consequences social, political and cultural, as well as economic. That these two ancient civilizations should at long last be in the process of giving the bulk of their people a decent standard of living, proper homes and sanitation and even the chance to travel and see the world fills me with joy.
This year marks the 67th anniversary of the end of World War II. The world hasn't exactly been a peaceful place since the war. A recent Hoover Institution study shows that, in addition to civil wars and violence from piracy and terrorism, the number of minor conflicts between two given power groups has actually increased, yet the degree of violence in our global society appears to be in a long-term decline. Why? The single biggest reason is the absence of a general war between great states. A 67-year period without such a war is unprecedented, certainly since the disintegration of the Roman Empire in the 5th century.
What's behind this long interval of general peace? Almost certainly the existence of nuclear weapons and the unwillingness of the great powers to risk their entire structures and populations in a thermonuclear exchange. But the de facto ban on such weapons is unlikely to survive a proliferation of them among the small (and more belligerent) powers.
This is why we must prevent Iran from acquiring the bomb quite apart from its brutal threat to use it against Israel. Even if it takes physical intervention by the U.S. to keep Iran in check, it will be well worth it, because such a demonstration of American willpower will deter other rogue states from going down the path Iran has chosen.
We must remain firm and show that we are prepared to take calculated risks to preserve the nuclear peace. The world is on the brink of an unprecedented era of prosperity and progress, which will include not only Asia and Latin America already joining the ranks of the haves but also Africa. We have good reasons to count our blessings.
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Eminent British historian and author Paul Johnson's latest book is "American Presidents Eminent Lives Boxed Set: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant". Comment by clicking here.
Previously:
03/13/12: To pick an American President
12/13/11: American Culture Rides High
10/20/11: Who Can Lead Us To Safety?
08/23/11: Wanted: Global Role Models
07/05/11: Debt: A Moral Issue
06/08/11: The Moral Logic of Intervention
03/10/11: China's Secret Weakness: Is history repeating itself?
02/10/11: Assessing America's Foes
11/29/10: Wanted: Someone to Trust
10/19/10: Are Universities Worth It?
06/01/10: The English Language and Freedom
04/20/10: Listening and Telling the Truth
02/28/10: There Is No Keynesian Miracle
10/20/09: A Job Waiting for a Woman?
07/21/09: Obama Has to Be World Sheriff
03/24/09: Short works of genius that cheer up the writing profession
02/11/09: What would Darwin do?
01/27/09: Are you sophisticated? Here's how to find out
01/06/09: What did they talk about in the Ice Age? The weather, of course
09/09/08: Time, and our appalling ignorance of it
08/19/08: Eye-stopping glimpses of an exotic and forbidden world
06/30/08: How to fill a lecture hall, and how to empty it
06/23/08: Americans should count their blessings
05/20/08: Pajamas for Presidents
05/13/08: Literary woodlice boring needless holes in biographical bedposts
04/01/08: When markets come crashing down, send for the man with the big red nose
04/01/08: Quality for dinner. Pass the Fairy Liquid, Old Boy
03/25/08: In search of an American President with brains and guts
03/18/08: Technological warfare against mice won't work. Try cats
03/11/08: What is a genius? We use the word frequently but surely, to guard its meaning, we should bestow it seldom
03/03/08: Fiction as a crutch to get one through life
02/26/08: Impatience + Greed = Trouble
02/13/08: Shakespeare, Neo-Platonism and Princess Diana
02/07/08: Where Industry Has Failed Us
12/19/07: People who put their trust in human power delude themselves
12/12/07: What is aggression?
12/04/07: Pursuing success is not enough
11/07/07: Are famous writers accident-prone?
10/31/07: Courage needed to disarm Iran
09/20/07: Who Will Say I Promise to Lay Off?
07/24/07: Greed is safer than power-seeking
04/02/07: Benefactors must be hardheaded
03/07/07: American idealism and realpolitik
11/28/06: Space: Our ticket to survival
10/24/06: Envy is bad economics
10/11/06: Better to Borrow or Lend? Rethinking conventional wisdom
08/22/06: Don't practice legal terrorism
08/08/06: A summer rhapsody for a pedal-bike
08/03/06: Why is there no workable philosophy of music?
07/11/06: Historically speaking, energy crisis is America's opportunity
07/06/06: The misleading dimensions of persons and lives
06/06/06: First editions are not gold
05/23/06: A downright ugly man need never despair of attracting women, even pretty
ones
04/25/06: Was Washington right about political parties?
04/12/06: Let's Have More Babies!
04/05/06: For the love of trains
03/29/06: Lincoln and the Compensation Culture
03/22/06: Bottle-beauties and the globalised blond beast
03/15/06: Europe's utopian hangover
03/08/06: Kindly write on only one side of the paper
02/28/06: Creators versus critics
02/21/06: The Rhino Principle
© 2009, Paul Johnson
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