From Watts Up With That?

By Anthony Watts

What We Should Be Grateful For in Climate, Energy, Living Standards, and Human Prosperity

Every year, as the cranberry sauce congeals and the football game drones on in the background, we’re told to “reflect on what really matters.” Fair enough. But rarely does anyone suggest reflecting on something far more fundamental to our modern existence: the extraordinary environmental stability, energy abundance, and human progress that underpin every comfort we enjoy today.

Instead, we hear about apocalyptic tipping points, “unlivable” futures, and the suggestion that your Thanksgiving turkey may soon be illegal unless it’s raised on insect protein and good intentions. But beneath the noise, the data tell a very different story—one worth genuine gratitude.

Below is an extended reflection—yes, a long one, the length you’d expect from me—covering the things we should be thankful for when it comes to climate, energy, standard of living, and human prosperity, backed by evidence, historical perspective, and just enough wit to keep things digestible.

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1. A Climate System Far More Stable Than Advertised

If you rely on headlines alone, you’d assume we live in a constant state of environmental emergency. Oceans rising by the minute. Storms “unprecedented” (a word the press now uses like salt—whether needed or not). Temperatures marching upward in perfect lockstep with the worst-case models.

But the real climate story is slower, more nuanced, and—dare I say—reassuring.

The Climate Isn’t Spiraling—It’s Drifting Gradually

What does long-term data actually show?

• Warming has occurred, yes—but at a rate far below the early alarmist projections.
• Long-term historical reconstructions tell us that modern temperature variability is well within the bounds of natural swings.
• Records of past warm periods—the Medieval Warm Period, Roman Warm Period, and Holocene Climate Optimum—remind us that warmth has historically been a good thing for human flourishing.

In other words, the Earth isn’t teetering on the edge of catastrophe. It’s behaving like it always has: with variability shaped by solar cycles, ocean currents, volcanic activity, and yes, human influence—but not in the runaway fashion so often claimed.

Climate/Weather Related Deaths Have Plummeted

This is one of the most underreported achievements in human history.

Roger Pielke Jr. and others (Lomborg, seen below) have shown that climate-related deaths (drought, flood, storms, heat, cold) have declined by over 95% since the early 20th century.

Why?

Not because the weather got nicer.
Because we got better.

Better forecasting. Better infrastructure. Better emergency response. Better sanitation. Better agriculture.
Human progress—not atmospheric CO₂—is the dominant climate factor in human survival.

CO₂: Not a Demon, But a Fertilizer
If you want something to genuinely be thankful for, look to the data from NASA: the Earth has greened dramatically over the last 30+ years, with increased vegetation equivalent to adding a new continent of green growth.

This isn’t conjecture—it’s satellite imaging.

Plants love CO₂. They perform better with more of it. Farmers know this. Botanists know this. In fact, commercial greenhouses pump CO₂ into their structures to enhance growth.

The irony is stunning:
The same molecule that activists call pollution is also fueling global agricultural success. For example, global wheat yield:

2. Energy Abundance: The Real Foundation of Modern Life

It’s fashionable in political circles to talk about “ending fossil fuels,” usually from people speaking into microphones, under lights, in air-conditioned rooms—all powered by fossil fuels.

But here’s the truth:

We owe modern civilization to abundant, affordable energy.

Hospitals. Refrigeration. Data centers. Clean water. Manufacturing. Transport. Heating.
None of these work without reliable, dense energy sources.

Fossil Fuels Still Provide 80% of Global Energy for a Reason

They’re:

• Energy-dense
• Affordable
• Transportable
• Available on demand
• Scalable to billions of people

Intermittent sources—wind and solar—simply cannot replace them without massive backup, land use, and expensive infrastructure.

Natural Gas Has Done More for Emissions Reductions Than Policy

This is the part climate activists hate to discuss.

Thanks to advances in natural gas production, the U.S. has:

• Lowered CO₂ emissions more than any country in the past two decades
• Reduced air pollution dramatically
• Improved energy reliability

Not through regulation.
Not through subsidies.
But through market-driven innovation.

Nuclear Power: The Neglected Hero

Nuclear energy remains:

• The most reliable low-emission energy source
• The smallest land-footprint electricity source
• Capable of running 24/7 for decades
• Safer than almost any major industry when judged by mortality data

If energy policies were guided by evidence rather than ideology, nuclear plants would be popping up like Dollar General stores.

3. Standard of Living: Better Than Any Time in Human History

It’s easy to forget this, because modern comforts are so normal we barely notice them.

But step back and look at the big picture.

We live in an era of unprecedented human well-being.

Consider:

• Life expectancy at global all-time highs
• Infant mortality at all-time lows
• Access to clean water and sanitation for billions
• Food production levels unimaginable a century ago
• Air quality in developed nations dramatically cleaner than in the 1970s

Much of this progress is directly tied to energy availability and technological advancements—not climate policy.

Weather Matters Less Than Ever

Modern infrastructure shields us from the elements.
Air conditioning saves millions from heat deaths.
Heating saves millions from cold-related mortality (which still far exceeds heat deaths globally).
Weather that once posed daily threats is now a manageable inconvenience thanks to better detection and warning systems.

To put it humorously:
Your ancestors worried about freezing to death.
You worry about whether your phone will survive a drop in the pool.

That’s progress.

4. Human Prosperity: The Real Miracle Worth Celebrating

We often take prosperity for granted because it arrived gradually. But zoom out, and the past 150 years represent a transformation unlike anything in human history.

Billions Have Escaped Extreme Poverty

According to the World Bank, global extreme poverty has fallen from 90% in 1820 to under 10% today, despite the world’s population skyrocketing.

That improvement was not fueled by solar panels and carbon taxes.
It was powered by affordable energy, industrialization, and economic freedom.

Agricultural Productivity Has Soared

Thanks to:

Mechanization
Fertilizers
Irrigation
Crop science
CO₂ fertilization
The world produces more food, more reliably, and with less labor than ever before.

This is how we’ve fed billions without turning the planet into farmland.

Freedom of Mobility, Trade, and Information
Energy makes everything mobile:

Goods
People
Medicine
Ideas
You can’t operate a global medical supply chain on a wind turbine.
You can’t run international commerce on battery-powered cargo ships—at least not for the next several decades.

Energy is the circulatory system of global prosperity.

5. The Human Spirit: Innovation Over Fear
   If there’s one thing history proves, it’s this:

Humans are far better at solving problems than predicting catastrophes.
Predictions of environmental doom have failed for over 50 years:

Mass famine by the 1980s
“Ice-free Arctic by 2013”
Peak oil
The end of snow
Cities underwater by 2020
Hurricanes getting worse
These predictions weren’t ignored—they were wrong.
Meanwhile, real progress came from innovation:

Better forecasting and warnings
Better infrastructure
Better agricultural methods
Better energy systems
Better scientific understanding
We have every reason to believe human ingenuity will continue to outpace environmental risks, especially if policy doesn’t get in the way.

Thanks most of all for: Prosperity Grounded in Reality
This Thanksgiving, rather than giving thanks for “climate action” or “net-zero commitments”—political slogans with poor track records—we should express gratitude for things that are real, measurable, and historically unprecedented:

A remarkably stable climate
Lower climate-related mortality
A greener planet
Abundant affordable energy
Technological resilience
Unmatched living standards
Unprecedented global prosperity
Human innovation that consistently outperforms doom predictions
These are not talking points.
These are facts grounded in data, history, and observation.

And they’re worth celebrating—because they’re the foundation of everything we enjoy today, from the food on our Thanksgiving tables to the warmth in our homes, to the freedom to question the prevailing narratives.

And, I would be remiss if I did not say thank you to all of you, the readers and supporters of WUWT. This coming year, we’ll hit 20 years in November 2026. WUWT has outlived and outperformed every other website about climate during that time. Not one can come close to the longevity, the reach, the number of publications, or the views that we have.

So, thank you dear readers. May your day be blessed with warmth, thankfulness, joy, abundance and good cheer.