I remember a while ago posting some statistics showing that average world life expectancy was rising, infant mortality falling, literacy rising, and that many diseases that had been killers were under control.
Surprisingly, a met a storm of protest, as though some subscribers were disappointed that more people weren't dying of starvation, disease etc.
But there is no room for complacency, as Yoshie notes with her statistics on the absence of basic amenities such as water and electricity for many of the world's population. The imperative for raising the rate of utilisation of natural resources is unavoidable.
"UNDP Administrator Gus
>Speth said Friday an estimated 1.5 to 2.0 billion people, out of a
>total world population of 5.8 billion, continue to live without
>electricity. And about 2.0 billion people still use fuel-wood and
>animal dung for their cooking" (at
><http://library.wustl.edu/~listmgr/devel-l/Mar1997/0041.html>).
-- James Heartfield