Amid the doom and gloom around us there is good reason to think that the lot ot mankind is actually improving.  Cheer youselves with the following good news:

– After about 200 years of pouring greenhouse gases into the air, resulting in the highest carbon dioxide levels since humans first walked the Earth, the rate of increase stalled in 2016 for the third year running, despite improved economic growth.  Nonetheless, we need to get emissions down by 80% , because the existing carbon is still up there, and every molecule of it survives at least 100 years)

– Africa is adopting smart phones at a huge rate, and the internet is spreading faster than anywhere else in the world.  By 2020 there will be 700 million of them, and they will account for 8% of GDP.

– latest figures  show that 64% of women are now using some form of contraception, up from 36% in 1970. Africa expects to have the highest growth over the next 15 years.  The projected 11 billion world population by 2100 may already be an exaggeration. At any rate there is a possibility that the developing world will be following the West’s trajectory towards two- child families.

–  Malaria is in retreat, except in sub- Saharan Africa; cancer deaths are falling , and AIDs treatments are expected to help 30 million by 2020.

– 50 million people worldwide are escaping poverty every year throughout the world, and increasing numbers are beginning to enjoy what we might call a middle- class life.  Aside from the turmoil in the Middle East, Sub- Saharan Africa is the toughest problem, accounting for 51% of the global poor.  Huge numbers of poor Africans are annually moving south, trying to get to South Africa. Even in that part of the world, countries like Namibia and Botswana are doing well, despite the high incidence of AIDS.