Depressed at the state of the world? Think again…
Most of us have been guilty of ‘doom-scrolling’ at one point or another, but consuming too much bad news can cause very real mental health issues. Psychologists recognize conditions such as ‘eco-anxiety’ as a very real and growing issue, because people everywhere are feeling overwhelmed, powerless or hopeless after consuming too much news about climate change, species extinction, pollution, and ecological collapse.
So we can be forgiven for thinking, like so many generations throughout history, that the state of the world has never been so dire, and that it is approaching an existential brink. But the underlying facts paint a very different picture—one that gives us plenty of reasons to be hopeful.
For example, humans are often described as the most violent species on earth. Our capacity for war and cruelty is undeniable, but the hard data tells a more nuanced story. For primates, the average number of individuals killed by their own species is around 2%—you might think of this as a genetically-endowed baseline. During the Middle Ages, this figure for humans was around 12% (a time of superstition and hostility to rationality and science)—but since the Renaissance, this number has decreased to a global average of 1.3%. And in the safest, most stable societies, this number can be as low as 0.01%.
Year on year, we find better, evidenced-based ways of cooperating, using centuries of painstaking learning to find alternatives to the zero-sum game of ‘might-is-right’.
In his book The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, psychologist Steven Pinker argues that we are living in the most peaceful era of human history. He attributes this decline in violence to factors such as the rise of centralized governments, increased literacy, and the spread of values that emphasize human rights and empathy. He says:
“The decline of violence may be the most significant and least appreciated development in the history of our species.”
Indeed, as a general trend, armies globally are shrinking. And nuclear weapons have de-escalated from their peak in the 1960’s from 60,000 warheads down to 10,000 today, and continue to fall.
And it’s not just in warfare that we see changes. In 1820, 43% of children, globally, died before the age of five. Today, that figure is 3.7% and continues to fall year on year. In 1983, 42% of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. Today that figure is around 9% and falling.
In 1985, 37% of the world lived in a democracy. Now it’s over 50%. And with advances such as human rights, votes for women, better access to education, health and information, comes greater cooperation, tolerance and living standards. In other words:
Bad news sells because it is shocking and immediate. Good news is often incremental, nuanced, or goes unnoticed, but—over time—is the more powerful force.
But what about the natural world? If you’re like me, when asked about whale populations, the first thing that comes to mind are the shocking images of whaling ships and skinned carcasses that have been seared into my memory. Indeed, humpback whales were hunted to the point where they numbered less than 10,000. But following international cooperation of an unprecedented kind, humans, as a species, banned whaling. Now, slowly and quietly, humpbacks have recovered to pre-industrial numbers. Today, their population is estimated at around 135,000–that’s more than there were in the year 1500.
And there are thousands of other stories like these.
We’ve all seen the upsetting images of industrial deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. We are not, however, regularly shown footage of trees growing, quietly in other parts of the world. But the data shows that from 1982 to 2016, global tree cover has actually expanded, by around 6%, due to global tree-planting initiatives, and people continuing to relocate to cities, leaving large swathes of land to be reclaimed by natural forest. That doesn’t mean there isn’t lots of work to be done in terms of the environment, or that the felling of ancient rainforests isn’t a travesty, but we can be heartened from the fact that it isn’t all doom and gloom.
Every year there are more than 9000 international conferences. People everywhere are coming together—often out of the spotlight—combining their expertise to find solutions to our biggest problems. Politicians, scientists, engineers, activists, angel investors, business leaders. A new treaty is signed here, a new initiative started there. And after a brief mention on the news these gigantic worldwide efforts—such as a 7000-mile green corridor to stop Sahara desertification—largely go unnoticed. But under the surface, things generally are getting better, all the time.
We all know the problems society and the world at large faces. Environmental, societal, economic and civil liberties. And yes, the last few years have brought more conflict, and more uncertainty. But it’s important to balance that stream of bad news with knowledge about the good things that are happening, and that the overall trend is a positive one.
For those times when the state of the world is getting you down, two books I highly recommend reading are Beautiful News, by David McCandless, and Not the End of The World by Hannah Ritchie.
Habit change: If there’s one change you can make to boost your overall happiness, it might be to restrict your daily news intake to perhaps once a week. A Sunday paper, or equivalent, for example. Believe me, you can still be just as informed about the most important current events, without having to consume the oft-repetitive coverage as it unfolds.
Since we know that news skews generally towards the negative, and that news outlets and social media expertly tap into our sense of outrage and anxiety, perhaps we can redress this imbalance by dedicating much of the time we spend doom-scrolling and instead commit to reading books that collate those less sensational, but more positive stories that are unfolding constantly, behind the scenes.
Reasons to feel happy… Though it may not always feel like it, the fact is that for a human beings in general, we are living in the safest, most enlightened period of time so far. Women’s rights, life expectancy, medicine, education, living standards, knowledge, legislation to protect minorities, awareness of our impact on the environment—globally, these are at an all time high, and continue to improve as society progresses.
Yes, the current rise of anti-science populism may be causing schisms and uncertainty, but there are good people, all over the world, pulling together to continue to solve the problems that face us. It might not get always on the evening news, but be happy in the knowledge that it’s happening.
Science-backed ways to be happier…
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