Showing posts with label Easterbrook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Easterbrook. Show all posts

Great Book: "It's Better than it Looks: Reasons for Optimism in an Age of Fear" by Gregg Easterbrook

https://www.amazon.com/Its-Better-Than-Looks-Optimism/dp/161039741X
Most people who read the news would tell you that 2017 is one of the worst years in recent memory. We're facing a series of deeply troubling, even existential problems: fascism, terrorism, environmental collapse, racial and economic inequality, and more.

Yet this narrative misses something important: by almost every meaningful measure, the modern world is better than it ever has been. In the United States, disease, crime, discrimination, and most forms of pollution are in long-term decline, while longevity and education keep rising and economic indicators are better than in any past generation. Worldwide, malnutrition and extreme poverty are at historic lows, and the risk of dying by war or violence is the lowest in human history.

https://www.ploughshares.org/world-nuclear-stockpile-report 

Nine countries in the world possess a total of 14,900 nuclear weapons. The United States and Russia account for 93 percent of them. Since their peak in the mid-1980’s, global arsenals have shrunk by over two-thirds. More countries have given up weapons and programs in the past 30 years than have tried to acquire them. The direction is positive, but when you are fleeing a forest fire it is not just direction but speed that matters. Ploughshares Fund is committed to reducing nuclear threats before it is too late.

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