The fact of the matter is that human history ebbs and flows--crops flourish and peace prevails, then famine strikes and the plague breaks out, wars start and stop and start again. Nevertheless, a close examination of the past century reveals it to be one of the most peaceful and prosperous in human history.
Yes, millions are in poverty and millions of children die each year of preventable causes--there's no getting around that tragedies exist. But there are 7 billion people on the planet, more than ever before, which is why you need to look at percentages of total population instead of straight numbers. The very fact that the human population has skyrocketed over the past century attests to the prevalence of food, medicine and general safety in comparison to past ages. It took humans tens of thousands of years to hit a billion--why? Because war, disease and famine tended to kill almost as many people as were born in any given year. Not anymore.
Further, there's never been as much motivation to alleviate human suffering than in the past several decades, which is why when famine strikes, for instance, in Africa, the numbers that die are nowhere near as staggering as in past centuries, even though the number of people affected might be very great. A very interesting place to visit is the UN website, where the Millenium Goals report can be found. While there are still staggering problems facing our species, over the last 20 years, more than a billion MORE people have improved water and sewage, poverty has decreased dramatically, and many communicable diseases, including malaria and AIDS, are moving downward. Ironically, there are more obese people on the planet right now than hungry--about a billion vs. 900 million hungry.
