If you closely follow the global news cycle, you would be forgiven for believing that we are diving head first into an apocalypse.Crises in Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine; terrorist attacks across Europe and the Middle East; mass shootings and police violence in the US; and frequent natural disasters everywhere else have left many calm, rational people in a state of fear.Only 4% of Brits and 6% of Americans believe that the world is getting better, according to polling by YouGov.But despite this universal sense of dread, humans are actually more safe, wealthier, healthier, more free, less hungry, and more literate than ever before, Johan Norberg argues in his book Progress, which is published on September 1.Norberg, an author and lecturer in economic globalisation, says that the key reason we are so anxious about the state of the world is that we are sharing information so much more quickly through 24 hour news channels and the internet.When a natural disaster or a mass murder happened in a foreign country in the past, we would not read about it in a newspaper until a week later. "By then it would be solved, it would be over," Norberg told Business Insider. "We would be sad about it, but then we would turn to the next page.""Now we can see what is happening live, we don't know how things will end. " he added. "That triggers our fight or flight instinctsit gives us the sense that everything is falling apart in the world right now."Norberg explained that this sense of doom is misplaced. He gave 10 reasons for why 2016 is actually the best time to be alive.1. There are much fewer hungry people in the world.One of humanity's most basic needs is food. Without sufficient calories on our plates, all of our other desires become unimportant. As recently as the 18th century, 20% of people from England and France had access to so few calories that they were physically unable to work, Norberg writes in his book, which led to people being short, stunted and unhealthy.While malnutrition is still a serious problem in parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, we have seen a rapid fall in the percentage of people affect within the last few decades. In 1992, 19% of the world's population was undernourished, but this has fallen to 11% in 2016.The proportion of people worldwide who are undernourished has dropped from 50% in 1945 to just more than 10% in 2015.2. More people have access to clean water than ever before."Food is not enough to sustain life," Norberg said. "A lack of sanitation and clean water has historically led to the most suffering and early death. Thats now been taken care of."From the end of the 19th century, many wealthy cities began building up-to-date sewer and water systems. This reduced mortality rates in these cities by more than 40%, Norberg explains in his book. Poorer countries were not able to take advantage of effective sanitation until the late 20th century, but when they did, the progress was rapid. 2.6 billion people have gained access to safe water supplies since 1990, according to Norberg.See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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