Actually, I think it's a great time to be alive
Sometimes, it's easy to forget that despite the world's problems, the chances are we would all much rather be alive now than in times past.
Why? Here's 5 reasons:
- Global life expectancy is approximately 73.66 years, compared to medieval England (c.30–35 years), or even the year 1900 (c.31 years globally). Even since the year 2000 there have been huge gains, with maternal deaths dropping over 40% between 2000 and 2023, and child deaths under the age of 5 more than halving. And that's despite COVID-19 and cuts to aid budgets. So a child born today has much better odds of reaching adulthood than at any prior point in history. We forget this in WEIRD societies sometimes. …