For decades, we have been inundated with information purporting to demonstrate that the apocalypse is if not upon us then certainly threatening to appear in the next few decades. In the 1960s, dire predictions of overpopulation and certain mass starvation by the year 2000 were commonplace. In the 1970s, it was the oil shock and the energy crisis. In the 1980s it was acid rain — and then came global warming, which morphed into climate change. This was all played out over a background of genuine thermonuclear threat. It’s no wonder we believed that ultimate catastrophe was looming. Surprising as it may seem, however, there is no shortage of reasons for holding the opposite viewpoint. The lives of most people, planet-wide, have dramatically improved in recent decades, extending a trend that began with the industrial revolution. In many important ways, things are looking better than they every have before. Dr. Marian Tupy and I discuss the macro-state of the world as outlined in his book Ten Global Trends. The ten trends identified and highlighted by Dr. Tupy are all associated with a large and important improvement in living standards for most of humanity, in rich and poor nations alike. Continue reading →