Why you should be an optimist

If you haven't heard of Matt Ridley aka the Rational Optimist then you've missed out on a different point of view to that promoting the fashionable doomsday du jour.

Ridley articulates very well, I think, why we should all be optimistic. His views on this topic align very well with my own. Even though there are rocky days ahead and almost certain financial doom and gloom, when you take a thirty thousand foot view of things for the long term one must conclude that humans will yet again defy the doomsdayers' predictions and work things out.

Imagine how miserable it must be to live life thinking that CO2 is going to make the planet uninhabitable and is already responsible for fire, flood, earthquakes and whatever other natural disasters that used to carry exactly that name until a generation grew up largely uneducated about how the world works - and uncaring, to boot. And uncaring that it's important that they know.

Who seriously thinks that when the oil eventually becomes uneconomical to produce - which is many hundreds of years away - mankind won't have transitioned to something like nuclear to fuel society?

Who seriously thinks the world is going to get to the point that it can't feed itself?

As I said, it would be a miserable life indeed.

Matt Ridley's presentations should be played to all 14-15 year olds in school. It would inspire them and get them to focus on the big picture.

If you like the video then send it to your 'miserable' friends so that they can find a reason to turn their thinking around.