Believe it or Not, Life on Earth is Getting Better
"If you could choose between living 200 years ago
or living today, which would you pick? Even the most recalcitrant pessimists
have to admit that it wasn't much fun living when life expectancy was less than
40 years and there was no anesthesia for when you had a toothache."
The heads of state who spoke at the United Nations
painted a bleak picture of the world's future, referring to the Great
Recession, rising poverty rates, global warming and armed conflict. So without
denying these problems, it is time to put things in perspective.
Is the world really getting worse? Are there grounds
to justify this global wave of pessimism? A study entitled 2011 State of the Futureproduced
by the Global Futures Studies' Millennium Project, helps put things in historical
perspective. It says that although there are enormous threats on several
fronts, the world is getting better. "The world is constantly getting
richer, healthier, better educated, more peaceful, and better connected, and
people live longer." But it reminds us that despite such signs of
progress, "half the world is potentially unstable."
True, the price of food is rising, corruption and
organized crime are on the rise in many places, climate change is being increasingly
felt, and the gap between rich and poor has widened since the global recession
of 2008. But the report suggests that, in the context of history, progress in
undeniable. The massive humanitarian aid sent to Haiti, Pakistan and Japan after
the recent tragedies in those countries, as well as the solidarity shown pro-democracy
movements in the Arab world are just the most recent examples how we are more
interconnected - and more concerned for our fellow human beings, according to
the study. "Fifty years ago, the entire world considered the elimination
of poverty an idealist fantasy and a waste of money," it stressed.
"Today, we are debating the most effective strategies for achieving this target
within the next 50 years."
Consider some of the data on the progress of the last
25 years: The average life expectancy worldwide rose from 64 years in the mid-1980s
to 68 years today. Global infant mortality over the same period declined from
nearly 70 deaths per 100,000 children to 40 deaths per 100,000 today.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Poverty, defined by the percentage of people living on
less than $1.25 a day, is down from 43 percent of the world's population in the
mid-1980s to 23 percent today. Enrollment in secondary school rose from 45 percent
in the mid-1980s to almost 70 percent today. The number of armed conflicts has declined
from 37 in the mid-1980s to 26 this year. And all indications are that these
trends will accelerate thanks to new advances in technology. "The imminent
biological revolution could change civilization more profoundly than either the
industrial or technological revolutions did," the report says.
My opinion: I loved reading this study, because I
agree that the world is getting better, despite setbacks like those newspapers
are reporting on now. Whenever the topic "we are worse off than ever
before" comes up, I pose the following question to my friends: If you could
choose between living 200 years ago or living today, which would you pick?
Even the most recalcitrant pessimists have to admit
that it wasn't much fun living 200 years ago when life expectancy was less than
40 years and there was no anesthesia for when you had a toothache. Today we
live longer and better. But I'm a worried optimist that doesn't take progress
for granted. I believe that the progress we've achieved shouldn't lead to complacency.
On the contrary, this should serve as an argument against the skeptics and as a
mobilizing factor to push us on to even greater progress.
*Argentine journalist
Andres Oppenheimer is a columnist for El Nuevo Herald and the Miami Herald
