Many people still suffer, and even the luckiest of us can see it.
People just aren't wired to think about things in terms of population statistics.
> people talk of the current world and time in negative tones
Are you sure they aren't also considering the trend that we're on?
Things are good overall, but China and Russia are not functioning democracies, and most powerful countries are trending away from democracy.
> it is cool to think negatively of the world
It is cool to be concerned about others who are suffering (and maybe even a status symbol for some), and that concern leads to negative feelings.
No one complains about the state of the world insincerely...
The trend away from democracy is alarming yes, and we shouldn't ignore it, but there is no way of knowing if it will be a short blip in history (like the trend of Communism 50s-80s) or something more permanent.
Not really. By an ecologist measuring it is the worst world we have since the last ice age and getting worse every day.
So sure, when you don't give a sh*t about nature, you can have your happy bubble of constant happy developement and improvement, but otherwise not. Oh and of course you also have to have a good air filter installed, as air pollution is a real thing too and not linked to good health. And streets and cars and noise is something new, too and also not considered healthy. Burn out and other civilisation diseases exist as well ...
Do not misunderstodd, I love technology and I don't like the "back to the trees" solution, as most who propose it, have never spend a full day without running water and emergency phone 24/7, but I also don't like getting blinded by only half of the facts.
Yes, thanks to technology we did improve amazingly, but there are many dark sides to it, we have to deal with now.
It isn't.
We have more forests now than 35 years ago [1] Ecological footprint is decreasing in Europe [2] Death rates from air pollution are dropping [3]
Thanks to technology we can have an amazing quality of life that not even nobility could dream of a hundred years ago, but we are also doing it in a more sustainable way.
[1] https://psmag.com/environment/the-planet-now-has-more-trees-... [2] https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/ecologica... [3] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-from-air-poll...
Yes and no. By some measures we have; CO2 and other greenhouse gases for example. Other things have improved; the ozone layer is repairing itself, and many countries have much better standards for clean water and so on.
We should address the problems we have but it's easy to despair and do nothing if we're too pessimistic.
I think that the best example was about the fact that some animal species are actually going back in number (in France we have that with the reintroduction of the wolves in the mountains). They gave a few example with species that had specific plans to protect them. The general fact is that 60% of the insect (not species, the total number of individuals) are gone in 40 years and 52% of the vertebrates in 40 years.
By only focusing on those "facts" you are actually not trying to understand the complexity of the current system and missing some really important points that are, indeed, not positive.
We are aiming at +4°C, some reports says 6-7°C at the end of the century, that is not something positive and we need to act on that for example.
The problem with this view is that Easter Island was probably the best it ever was until the last tree was cut down.
Of COURSE your standard of living will be the highest it's ever been when you're on the upslope of resource utilization/credit expansion.
The few bears/grinches/negative nellies/chicken littles remaining aren't going around proclaiming how terrible things are right now - rather, we're pessimistic about what the future will bring. And we all want to be wrong, but don't think we are.
This is one of these temporary fashions, with several factors at play such as Trump rising to power and climate change. But if you take many other into account, such as violent crime from the 80s/90s, we're living in a paradise. As a human, you can handle a limited number of factors. So it really boils down to a personal choice at this point.
In the US.
It's not really a temporary fashion; whatever the time and age, people sensitive to injustice and human suffering will find something systematically broken somewhere. Sure it's cute that violent crimes went down in the West in the 90s, it's less fun that innocent slave labor (including children) was being forced at gunpoint to mine tantalum for the capacitors in 2000s so that we here could have our smartphones, all under tacit approval and sometimes control of western corporations. That's one random story I remember being deeply bothered by in my high school years.
So no, I don't think it's a temporary fashion, and nothing to do with Trump or climate change. In every day and age there was something deeply broken somewhere on this planet. But you're right; seeking it out and being bothered about it is a personal choice, and it's an open question whether it's a wise choice - it feels right, but also, if you're not doing anything to help, then it feels like tormenting yourself for no reason.