We have just been through the best decade in the history of the world.
From the United Nations Development Report:
The gap in basic living standards is narrowing, with an unprecedented number of people in the world escaping poverty, hunger and disease.
The World Bank reports;
the world-wide rate of extreme poverty fell more than half, from 18.2% to 8.6%, between 2008 and 2018.
The World Data Lab calculated that for the first time:
More than half the world’s population can be considered “middle class.
Health progress has been remarkable. People have better access to water, sanitation, health care and vaccines than ever. The incidence of malaria in Africa declined almost 60% from 2007 to 2017, and antiretroviral therapy reduced HIV/AIDS deaths more than half.
Global life expectancy increased by more than three years in the past 10 years, mostly thanks to prevention of childhood deaths. According to the U.N., the global mortality rate for children under 5 declined from 5.6% in 2008 to 3.9% in 2018.
According to the online publication
Our World In Data
At a certain point developed countries start polluting less. Death rates from air pollution declined by almost a fifth world-wide and a quarter in China between 2007 and 2017.
Quoting Andrew McCabe in More From Less:
Rich countries use less aluminum, nickel, copper, steel, stone, cement, sand, wood, paper, fertilizer, water, crop acreage and fossil fuel every year. Consumption of 66 out of 72 resources tracked by the U.S. Geological Survey is now declining.
Global warming?
A challenge.
But according to the International Database of Disasters
wealthy societies are well-positioned to develop clean technologies and to deal with the problems of a changing climate. Annual deaths from climate-related disasters declined by one-third between 2000-09 and 2010-15, to 0.35 per 100,000 people—a 95% reduction since the 1960s. That’s not because of fewer disasters, but better capabilities to deal with them.
Interesting that the report
Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future
Concludes
Mankind creates faster than they can squander, and repairs more than they can destroy.