Okay, enough of the doom and gloom, people!
Today we’re going to focus on the good things happening in the world right now that most people aren’t aware of.
And AskReddit users were nice enough to share them with us.
Let’s have a good day!
Yes!
“Pandas are no longer endangered species.
Pandas get a bit of a bad rap because of the difficulties with conserving them. They do pretty okay in a truly wild bamboo forest environment without any pressure from humans or climate change. The issue is that they’re awful at coping with any sort of stress at all.
Which yeah, would have had them go extinct faster than some other species but that doesn’t mean they were going to be dead in a century without people f**king it up for them.”
Progress.
“A few global public health things:
We have made tremendous progress on ending the AIDS epidemic in the last 40 years.
The percentage of adults that smoke cigarettes is lower than it has been historically.
We went from like 800k cases of Guinea worm in the world in the late 80s to 12 in 2022.”
That’s awesome.
“For the first time in decades there have been Iberian Lynx sightings in the region of Madrid.
Two sightings in the last week, huge news as this species is among the most endangered animals in the world.”
The bee’s knees.
“Honey bees are at a all time high, and are now considered overpopulated!
The whole “save the bees” was never made for honey bees, but instead other species such as the mining bees!”
Pretty incredible.
“We have more knowledge and connectivity at our fingertips than ever before.
Our ancestors may have only had a 5th grade education but we can Google lecture videos of nuclear physics.”
That’s good!
“I’m an environmental consultant.
Human health based requirements for concentrations of chemicals in the environment have been decreasing over the years. This means that polluters are being held to higher standards and sites that are getting cleaned up are required to be cleaner.
I was concerned under the Trump administration we’d see a serious backslide in these requirements, but we are making progress at the state and local levels.
This is happening on an international level too. China is eliminating residential coal-burning, which is greatly improving air quality in their cities, and India is replacing dung-burning with induction cook stoves and LPG stoves. This does wonders for air quality in Delhi as well as household air quality for the poorest Indians.”
Breakthroughs.
“Progress being made on cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Spectrum disorders, HIV.
My uncle got HIV in 1982 and died less than 6 months later. It took months just to figure out what he actually had, and when they did, there was very little they could do anyhow.”
Big comeback.
“Raptors in North America have made a miraculous comeback since the banning of DDT in the late 1970s.
Songbirds are still in trouble for other reasons. But it’s no longer a big deal to see bald eagles, ospreys, barred owls, etc. in many semi rural and suburban areas that they hadn’t been seen in regularly for decades.”
Isn’t medicine great?
“Appendectomies.
In 1931, my great grandfather died a horrible de**h due to septic shock from a ruptured appendix, leaving a widow and four kids under the age of 11.
I’m a nurse. Last week we did a laparoscopic appendectomy on a teenager that took all of 90 minutes. He will have a tiny scar and it will be a blip in his medical history.”
All kinds of good stuff.
“The human race has become so much more wealthy in the last 200 years that it’s nearly incomprehensible. In the last 20 years extreme poverty has been halved.
- Hunger and malnutrition have been decreasing for decades
- We have more extractable oil reserves now than ever before in history
- The percent of the human race dying in wars has been on a historical low for about 80 years. It’s one of the safest times in human history
- Life expectancy has skyrocketed. Mainly because of decreasing childhood and infant deaths
- Violent crime is down significantly for 20 years ago
- The world has gained and standardized many of the recent so-called past luxuries. The majority of the world has electricity
- Car are way safer than they were even 20 years ago
- Plane travel is absurdly safe, with multiple years now with zero commercial deaths
- Non-necessity spending is at all time high.
- The majority of people in western countries over the age of 60 are retired. This was very uncommon 100 years ago
- Per capita child labor is at all time lows
- Literacy is at all time highs
- Share of income spent on food is down about 30% in 60 years
We are living in a golden age of humanity. “You don’t know the good old days until they are over” I think people don’t appreciate how great it is to be a human born after 1940.”
I hope this post restored your faith in humanity.
I know it made me feel great about our world!