Are we in the best of times? Or the end of times? One of the oddities of the current era is that extreme pessimism about the world coexists with extreme optimism — and both have a plausible case to make.
The two views are epitomised by David Attenborough and Bill Gates, two charismatic figures whom I met on the same day, earlier this year. (Reader, forgive me, it was at Davos.)
Sir David, now in his nineties, is using his position as one of the world’s most famous broadcasters to sound the alarm about looming environmental catastrophe. In a recent BBC programme, Climate Change: The Facts, he argued that without dramatic action, humanity “faces a devastating future”.
Sir David highlights not just climate change but a whole array of unfolding environmental disasters, such as the pollution of the oceans and the extinction of species.
Mr Gates, by contrast, is a determined optimist. In a recent interview with the MIT Technology Review, he argued that “the big picture is that it’s better to be born today than ever, and it will be better to be born 20 years from now than today.” To back up his case, Mr Gates can point to an array of good news. In 1990, nearly 36 per cent of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty; but by 2015 that number had fallen to 10 per cent. Child mortality rates have also plummeted over the same period.