Tired of Bad News?

Aren’t we all. So in the interest of helping keep a spring in your step as you stride out the door in the morning, I thought I’d point this out to you. What is it? Why, they UN’s State of the Future report for 2007, the latest in an annual series of publications about, well…everything. Life on Earth. It’s conclusion, aside from the bad stuff that we pretty much know about already (global warming, income disparities, corruption, etc.), is that life on Earth is getting steadily better. It says and I quote:

People around the world are becoming healthier, wealthier, better educated, more peaceful, more connected, and they are living longer.

That’s right. Life expectancy is at an all-time high, infant mortality at an all-time low. Gross domestic products are at record levels, and despite high-profile conflicts like Iraq and Darfur, there are fewer wars now than ever before in recorded history. Illiteracy has been cut in half since 1970, and despite the fact that the total number of democracies in the world is shrinking, there are more total people living in free societies than ever. The long-feared threat of human over-population has all but disappeared, and the price of laptop computers will soon drop to an average of $100 — allowing even the poorest of the poor on Earth to read joepastry.com.

In short, despite our problems, there’s never been a better time to be a-stompin’ this sweet swingin’ sphere. On which note I shall wish you a happy weekend.