
Is the World Falling Apart? Not at All - chollida1
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Goalkeepers
======
adekok
While a good chunk of things are getting better, it's hard to say that eating
most of the planet is a good idea.

There are many, many, fewer animals now than even 50 years ago:

[https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161027113306.h...](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161027113306.htm)

58% of species are in decline

[https://e360.yale.edu/features/insect_numbers_declining_why_...](https://e360.yale.edu/features/insect_numbers_declining_why_it_matters)

Many fewer insects than 50 years ago

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_fishing_in_Newfoundland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_fishing_in_Newfoundland)

 _After his voyage in 1497, John Cabot 's crew reported that_

 _" the sea there is full of fish that can be taken not only with nets but
with fishing-baskets".[3]_

 _and around 1600 English fishing captains still reported cod shoals_

 _" so thick by the shore that we hardly have been able to row a boat through
them."[4]_

While individual human life has gotten better, it has largely been at the
expense of every other organism on the planet.

For a logical conclusion (mostly) to this process, see "The Godwhale" by TJ
Bass.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Godwhale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Godwhale)

In it, people are the only animals left on the planet, as they've eaten
everything else.

~~~
Daishiman
Yes. It's amazing how most people can handwave away the health of the
biosphere that supports our existence.

The simple fact of the matter is that we are making the planet uninhabitable
at a rate that is too low for the average person to understand, while being
too fast for species' evolutionary adaptations to kick in.

In a couple of generations we've polluted most bodies of water with some form
of pollution, be it microplastics, fertilizer runoff, or a myriad other things
whose effects are not understood.

We've altered the Earth's atmosphere to a point where it is, for all intents
and purposes, irreversible.

We have no mechanisms to restore fertility and biodiversity to the levels
where they used to be before our population explosion. No one would care
anyway.

~~~
okreallywtf
I agree and I'm very concerned about the same things, although the recovery of
habitats after human habitation is gone does make me more optimistic a)
because that means we could likely rehabilitate wildlife populations ourselves
as long as they are not extinct and b) because we'll more likely kill
ourselves off and the world will recover.

------
alexanderstears
> Is the world falling apart?

> No.

> Here's a video. Watch it with a VR headset or browser that supports 360
> degree video

> Watch me on facebook later this week

Somehow, I think this could have been more persuasive.

~~~
nebabyte
"Is the world falling apart? Not for the wealthy and privileged"

------
S_A_P
I do feel that a great point is made. Dont put your head in the sand, but dont
let yourself get caught up anyway the wind blows. There is plenty we can do
with the help of philanthropy and governments to solve todays problems even if
they are cyclical in nature or seemingly too numerous to process. Looking at
what the trend of things(disease, etc) we can see what is actually getting
better or worse, since the news is always looking for the next big story that
brings ratings and ad revenue...

------
sekou
The "How not to be ignorant about the world"
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm5xF-
UYgdg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm5xF-UYgdg)) TED talk by Hans (Rest In
Peace) and Ola Rosling covers this topic well. Objectively the world is
improving for humanity, however in the West and in "developed" nations it's
harder to feel like things are going well.

~~~
nebabyte
Of course the world is improving on metrics like "deaths by natural
disasters". That's just a consequence of technologies and infrastructures
improving over time, and charitable funding to developing nations that aren't
corrupt to the point that the money just ends up with their politicians.

"Sure we're all getting better, just look at global food and safety" is as
inanely pointless an argument as "of course nothing is getting better, just
look at poverty and corruption" \- both lie on opposite ends of the most
obvious basic spectrum of human behavior. If all you're worried about is "will
I be alive and breathing" then yes, by all means, you have an "optimistic"
future.

The political and economic trends of major countries might seem insignificant
in comparison, but the world takes its cues from first-world countries. The
state and progress of things in first world countries are a pointer to where
things _are going_ to go in those nations once the lowest levels of Maslow's
hierarchy are covered.

------
sluggg
the irony: let me show you how our reality is better than before with virtual
reality!

lol

I agree with and support the message, but I was just hoping we could address
the irony here.

------
mudil
Thank you for linking to it. Good for Gates! I am amazed at the proclivity of
people to enjoy and dwell on doom and gloom. Even here on HN, where people are
smart and tech savvy, doom and gloom prevails. I believe that the tendency to
think negatively is very intrinsic to our brains, and prevents most people
from achieving their full potential and, I think, this tendency is the major
negative force in our ability to achieve faster progress and more just
society.

PS Check out my recent discussion on HN, to see how my optimistic, most
innocuous comments get criticized and down voted by doom and gloom crowd...
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15100050](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15100050)

PPS There you have it: the comments to this thread are already piling up with
doom and gloom.

~~~
CalRobert
Do you have a counterargument to the doom and gloom?

I mean, if an asteroid is headed to Earth it's not uncalled for to be doom and
gloomy. It really does suck. The same goes for possibly eliminating most of
the life on the planet and with it the ability for human civilization to
persist.

~~~
mamcx
That asteroid is climate change. Is just less fast.

~~~
CalRobert
That was precisely my point

