Do You Realize?

by Kevin A. Kuhn

“It’s true! Check the facts. Take murders: in the Middle Ages there were about a hundred murders for every hundred thousand people per year, while today some European countries have about one murder for every hundred thousand people per year. Overall, murder rates have dropped by about one hundred times from the Middle Ages to today,” Shiloh said. “I don’t know how anyone could know how many murders there were during the Middle Ages. Where did you find this, some random page on the Internet?” asked George, glancing out the window. “No, I read a book by Steven Pinker, called The Better Angels or something like that. He’s credible; look it up. And despite the fact that people think war violence is increasing, there has been a ninety percent reduction in war-related deaths since World War II.” “All right, Shiloh, for the sake of argument, I’m going to assume you are correct, and if so, that’s pretty surprising,” George conceded. “Good. Now, are you concerned about carbon?” Shiloh asked.