The late, great Hans Rosling, not too long ago, asked Americans the question...

"Has the percentage of the world's population living in extreme poverty doubled, halved, or stayed the same over the last five decades?"

• 5% said it has almost halved.
• 65% said that it had almost doubled.
• The rest said it had probably stayed the same.

The 5% were right.

Rosling went on to say that, if he had taped the answers to bananas, and thrown them to a bunch of chimps, he would have gotten a more accurate answer to his question than he got from most American adults.

The great Matt Ridley...