Angus Hervey

We found the building blocks for life in an asteroid, decoded whale speech and discovered fractals in the quantum realm.

Did you know that sea turtle populations are increasing around the world?

Or that overfishing is declining in the Mediterranean?

Or that last year, China finished encircling its largest desert with a giant belt of trees, its very own Great Green Wall.

And this year, the United States created its largest conservation corridor, stretching from Utah down to California.

These are all victories from the last 12 months, but they happen because

People, often small groups of people, fought for years and sometimes decades.

And if we extend our timeframe out, even better news.

Over four million square kilometers of the world's oceans have been protected in the last four years.

Air pollution has started to decline.

In the last decade,

Over 250 million children have gained access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene at school.

And in this century, this insane rollercoaster of a century, over a billion people have been lifted from extreme poverty.

Deaths from the world's deadliest infectious diseases have halved, and for the first time in history, over 50 percent of students receive a high school education.

We have no precedent for that, a world where the majority of people can read, write and calculate, where most humans possess the tools to question authority and determine their own destinies.

So ... which one of these stories is true?

Is this the long-awaited fall from grace?

Or are we on a journey to the promised land?

Collapse or renewal?

The answer, of course, is that it's both.