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Thread: Are things getting worse, or better?

  1. #1
    Oliphaunt The Original An Gadaí's avatar
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    Default Are things getting worse, or better?

    Well, are they?

    Global climate change, depletion of easy energy resources, continued ethnic conflicts, obesity epidemic, continued existence of bloodyminded dictatorships etc.

    vs

    more people in the developing world escaping from poverty, better civil rights in many countries, great new technologies, great television shows, wide variety of food accessible etc.

  2. #2
    Prehistoric Bitchslapper Sarahfeena's avatar
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    I think generally, things are getting better. There's a lot of room for improvement, but I don't think we're backsliding. The #1 most important thing we need to accomplish is to get everyone fed and adequate medical care, and strides are being made in those areas every day.

  3. #3
    Elen síla lumenn' omentielvo What Exit?'s avatar
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    Depends, I think the US & Japan are backsliding to some degree but the world over all is improving. The Global climate change is being very poorly addressed and is of course tied to the depletion of easy energy resources. We could keep burning coal but this will just make the global climate change worse. From what I can see we are moving too slow to save a lot of the cities on the coast which is a very high percentage of the world's pop.

    I'm not sure about the great TV bit but as we have so many options and alternative to just basic TV I guess it works out fine. As to food, this is not such good news.

    I actually disagree with Sarah on her #1s. The population always exceeds food and medical care and what should be #1 is slowing or stopping population growth which will allow us to feed and provide adequate medical care to all. The Green Revolution that has fed so many in India in particular is reaching its upper limit and likely to start declining unless they sharply change their water usage. The way we do things globally needs to change. China is prepared to lead the way apparently with better Automotive Tech and more of the US is going to direct trickle irrigation instead of the wasteful methods we use now. As the world follows these two giants it will get better. India and Indonesia need to especially do something soon.

    Solar panels are likely to get cheaper and become more common, but nuclear power just took a big gut punch that will probably slow growth of it as a resource just as it was becoming more viable again. Still waiting to see clean(er) coal off the drawing boards and into production. Ethanol based on corn is a terrible waste and really just a boondoggle by the US's corn industry but Brazil has done very well with ethanol based on sugar cane and we may follow suit with better plants then corn. A huge area that most of the world still lags in is improved energy distribution. We send electric over far too great distances with far too high of a waste factor.

    Now civil rights world wide do appear to be improving and lets see where this latest round of change in the Middle-East leads us. Over-all the standard of living is improving steadily and this is great.

  4. #4
    Content Generator AllWalker's avatar
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    Things almost always feel like they are getting worse, whether they are or not. One day we might pass through a golden age and not even realise.

    I honestly believe that, over all, things are getting better and weirder. I'm an optimist.
    Something tells me we haven't seen the last of foreshadowing.

  5. #5
    Elen síla lumenn' omentielvo What Exit?'s avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by AllWalker View post
    Things almost always feel like they are getting worse, whether they are or not. One day we might pass through a golden age and not even realise.

    I honestly believe that, over all, things are getting better and weirder. I'm an optimist.
    I'm not sure about that. Things felt like they were getting worse for the US & UK in the 70s and now again. The 80s & 90s were a time of optimism and growth overall. I really thought the world was improving a lot in those two decades.

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