A World Half Full: Difference between revisions
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** Even the HIV pandemic is a good example of how much we've progressed. In about three decades, the first world has determined the etiological agent of the disease, discovered its structure, broken down its genome, figured out a very complete picture of what it does to our cells, completely mapped its genes, discovered how it spreads and how it could be prevented from doing so, found ways to hold it in check and keep patients from succumbing, and implemented public health programs which have brought the pandemic to heel in the first world. Compared to how any other time period in history would have fared, it's nothing short of miraculous. By contrast, Sub-Saharan Africa is being devastated in a manner which is simply heart-wrenching to watch as well as a chilling reminder of what other great pandemics did ''before'' we learned how to fight back.
** There are about 1,000 cases of polio yearly in the world. At its peak in the US, there were over 55,000 per year. The disease was scheduled for complete eradication (like smallpox), but unfortunately fanatical groups in a few remote areas in Nigeria have preached the vaccine is a "Western mind control drug." India has some severely crowded, hard-to-treat populations heavily affected by polio. A few cases from these regions enter the neighboring African and Middle Eastern nations. All of Europe, north and east Asia, the Americas, and Australia are completely clear. That's almost 5,000 American kids dead per year in the 50's to ''zero'' today.
** We are increasingly [https://web.archive.org/web/20131030061355/http://www.ted.com/talks/stewart_brand_on_squatter_cities.html specialized], [https://web.archive.org/web/20140227025311/http://www.ted.com/talks/matt_ridley_when_ideas_have_sex.html interconnected] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20110622085502/http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence.html tolerant]. We are indeed earning our collective happy endings. Together.
** Do you think [http://www.avaaz.org/en/ glorified spam] can stop internet censorship, cluster bombs or capital punishment for sodomy? Well it ''did''. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAh9IIHVb7c Life has never been better.]
** Not to mention how far we are moving in terms of renewable resources and sustainability, and corporations are trying hard to become green and sustainable for the future. Of course we have some ways to go, but we're getting there.
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