The End of Doom: Environmental Renewal in the Twenty-first Century

Ronald Bailey

Jul 2015 · Sold by Macmillan

About this ebook

In the past five decades there have been many, many forecasts of impending environmental doom. They have universally been proven wrong. Meanwhile, those who have bet on human resourcefulness have almost always been correct.

In his widely praised book Ecoscam, Ronald Bailey strongly countered environmentalist alarmism, using facts to demonstrate just how wildly overstated many claims of impending ecological doom really were. Now, twenty years later, the Reason Magazine science correspondent is back to assess the future of humanity and the global biosphere. Bailey finds, contrary to popular belief, that many present ecological trends are quite positive. Including:
Falling cancer incidence rates in the United States.
The likelihood of a declining world population by mid-century.
The abundant return of agricultural land to nature as the world reaches peak farmland.
A proven link between increases in national wealth and reductions in air and water pollution
Global warming is a problem, but the cost of clean energy could soon fall below that of fossil fuels.

In The End of Doom, Bailey avoids polemics and offers a balanced, fact-based and ultimately hopeful perspective on our current environmental situation. Now isn't that a breath of fresh air?

Ratings and reviews

Ron Bailey's brief is wide, covering lots of areas beyond the inevitable discussion of human caused changes in climate. His reasoning that we have more to hope for in the future than to dread is persuasive. I admit to my own confirmation bias. But I agree with his bottom line that we have far more to fear by stifling innovation and human ingenuity than by letting humans get to work on (and yes, perhaps profit from) solutions. Well worth the time to read and the modest price.

About the author

RONALD BAILEY is the author of Ecoscam and an award-winning science correspondent for Reason magazine and Reason.com where he writes a weekly science and technology column. He is also an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute and has worked as a staff writer at Forbes. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Smithsonian, Reader's Digest and many other publications.