Factfulness: Why Things Are a Lot Better Than You Think

If you are among the 35m or so people who have watched Hans Rosling's lectures on YouTube, you may be familiar with his natty graphs and cheerily avuncular presentation style. The basic message is pretty simple-"chin up, the world is getting much, much better." Despite the "mega misconception that things are getting worse," deaths from disease, natural disasters, famine, and war have all plummeted in a relatively short space of time. And the demographic evidence suggests we are not actually heading for a Malthusian horror-show of overpopulation-induced starvation.