• To the extent that inequality is deplorable, global inequality in terms of income, life expectancy, human development and access to modern amenities have declined and continue to decline. • The detrimental effects of carbon dioxide and fossil fuels are overwhelmed by other concurrent changes that are beneficial. • Fossil fuels have allowed the population to increase even as the wellbeing of the average person has improved and the Earth has become greener and more productive. As a result, habitat lost to human uses has been halted, despite population increases. These are the very definitions of success for a species. In the future, books on agnotology will devote chapters to how the standard narrative on climate change impacts took hold among the religious and secular leaders of the 21st century despite copious evidence to the contrary.
Note The UK Met Office declined GWPF's offer to publish a counterview as an appendix to this paper.
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