Hope & Despair

Archive

Every question.

The complete index. The atlas places these on the hope↔despair spectrum; here they are plain and chronological. Subscribe via RSS.

  1. 01 Is humanity becoming less violent? War & Peace · Long-run collapse, short-run reversal Read →
  2. 02 Are we beating disease and death? Health · Better than it feels Read →
  3. 03 Is the climate stabilizing or breaking? Climate · Long-run despair, a hopeful recent turn Read →
  4. 04 Is the world winning against poverty? Poverty · The great escape, half-finished and slowing Read →
  5. 06 Is the green transition actually happening? Energy · Happening fast, arriving slow Read →
  6. 07 Is the electric-car revolution real? Energy · The sales flipped; the fleet hasn't Read →
  7. 05 Are poor countries catching up? Wealth & Growth · Converging for people, not for places Read →
  8. 08 Is the world running out of children? Population · A liberation and a reckoning at once Read →
  9. 09 Who shapes science now? Knowledge · Open, global, unequal Read →
  10. 10 Are more people learning to read? Education · The world has learned to read; it has not finished learning. Read →
  11. 13 Is the world drowning in debt? Money & Debt · A tool for the rich and a tightening trap for the poor, as the bills grow where the borrowing room is smallest. Read →
  12. 14 Is the air getting cleaner or deadlier? Environment · Cleaner for some, dirtier for most, deadlier overall — the rich world's air clears as South Asia's thickens and the toll climbs. Read →
  13. 14 Is human progress slowing down? Human Development · Not slowing so much as diverging — the regions that drove the gains have nearly arrived, while the frontier that needs them most has barely moved. Read →
  14. 15 Is work getting better or worse? Work & Jobs · Destitution is in retreat; insecurity is not. A job is far more likely to beat poverty than it was a generation ago, and almost as likely as ever to come with nothing behind it. Read →
  15. 16 Can the world create enough jobs? Work & Jobs · An open question, leaning anxious. About 1.2 billion young people reach working age in the developing world by 2035; whether that wave becomes a growth dividend or a wasted generation depends on decisions not yet made. Read →
  16. 19 Can the world afford to eat healthy? Food · Better globally, brutal locally Read →
  17. 00 Is the world getting better or worse? The Whole Question · being written Preview →