More traffic but less deadly
The world’s roads have long been deadly places. For Americans from ages 1 to 44, traffic was for decades the leading cause of death. But since 2011, traffic deaths globally have fallen 21 percent – even as the number of vehicles has doubled. Behind the change are shifts from more seatbelts and motorcycle helmets to…
The sudden exponential rise of solar
As of sometime last year, for the first time since 1919, coal was dethroned as the world’s biggest producer of electricity – overtaken by renewable energy sources. Those clean-energy sources are all growing. For years, wind has dominated the category, and it is still growing solidly. But solar blew past it last year like a…
Never before have America’s streets been so safe.
The official numbers are in: the violent crime rate in America last year – from murders to muggings to carjackings – was the lowest since the FBI began counting in 1936. The drop from the previous year was the biggest single-year decrease in violent crime on record. And this followed major decreases in each of…
Even now, immigrants still feel welcome
It may feel like an anti-immigrant moment in the US as masked ICE agents sweep American streets and workplaces for people who entered illegally or otherwise lack full legal resident status. President Trump’s most popular issue remains his get-tough immigration policy. But immigrants themselves didn’t get the memo. In a recent Gallup World Poll, the…
Global hunger finally back on its downward march
World hunger is back on a downward trend, after progress began stalling in the 2010s then actually worsened around the pandemic. The number of undernourished people has dropped year by year since 2022, after first stalling upward around the pandemic. The share globally fell to 7.8 percent in 2025, from 8.1 percent in 2024, and…
The rest of the wildfire story
Yes, Europe has seen wildfires in France and Spain this summer on a historic scale, with hundreds of thousands of evacuations. Yes, the Midwest and Atlantic regions of the US have been throttled with smoke from vast fires in Canada. And yes, climate change is a factor in creating the conditions for these fires. El…
Dementia: rise and fall
If the fear and burden of dementia feel ever more present in recent years, you haven’t lost your mind. The number of dementia cases around the world has risen roughly two and a half times since 1990. But that’s not the story here. Consider that the number of people over the age of 80 has…
The global prosperity gap is shrinking
Billionaires by the dozen and, at least briefly, one trillionaire have drawn a lot of public attention in this country lately and become symbols of economic inequality. But take a step back for a global take. Equality has been on a powerful upswing for two generations now. The rise in incomes, wealth, and a share in…
Will AI divide us further? Maybe not.
Those of us who consult Claude, Gemini, or ChatGPT — which by now is almost all of us — know that our artificial consultants and coaches are tirelessly agreeable. They’re programmed sycophants, trained to please and take our cues as they answer our questions and respond to our prompts. Is this a setup for digging…
It’s been 250 years. We’ve changed.
Philadelphia was the biggest city, at 30,000. New York City had about 25,000. Today those would be towns just big enough to support one medium-size high school. Most Americans were self-employed farmers, and their world was powered by muscle – human and animal – with some added boost from firewood and water power. Today, one…