Daily headlines may be gloomy but in the five decades since the moon landing we have made giant leaps

If we only produced a newspaper every 50 years what would we put in it?

Well, despite today’s mood of crisis, pessimism, alarm and antagonism, the semicentennial 2019 edition would probably be pretty upbeat.

In the 50 years since we landed on the moon (and since I was born) progress down here on Earth has been stellar.

We’ve made remarkable advances in tackling poverty and child mortality, as the world’s economy has grown more than thirtyfold since the giant leap for mankind.

When it comes to public health, we’ve either eradicated (smallpox) or driven back (guinea worm, polio, malaria, sleeping sickness) a whole textbook of diseases, and fought back strongly against some of the most deadliest of all, including HIV and cancer. (This week, Sarah Boseley discovered great hope for the battle against cervical cancer).

We have more people in work than ever – and despite current pangs, democracy is still winning as a numbers game, with more people voting in elections in 2019 than at any point in history.

And while we’re comparing 2019 with 1969, the festival scene has come a long way since Woodstock, and is now probably greener than ever.

Play Video 1:05 Could this be Glastonbury's greenest year yet? - video explainer

Of course there are challenges. There always have been.

Humanity has doubled in number since 1969 (when I was born there were 3.528 billion people alive – check your number here.) We are overusing resources, leading to big environmental and biodiversity crises. Yet since 1969 we have learned to harness energy from sun, moon and wind. (This week, Oliver Milman reported that the US generated more electricity from renewables than from coal for the first time).

We are an ageing species – more than 1 billion of us are over 60. But we are ingenious too, for ever thinking up new ways to face down this challenge.

Of course, there’s still Trump, Brexit, Iran, Johnson, Hong Kong, Putin, austerity.

But will we still be writing about them in 50 years’ time?

Lucky numbers

Still playing with the rather arbitrary 50-year theme, air pollution may be a serious health hazard in parts of the world today, but in many places it’s actually better than it was. In the UK, you’re far less likely to die because of nasty stuff in the air than you were in 1970.

What we liked

The family spending a year volunteering in Europe, as reported by our friends at Positive News.

Also this piece examining how the green new deal might change the US’s built space.

What we heard

Mary Bomford wrote to us on the theme of waste and recycling:

Lots of bad news about how recycling goes nowhere. Check out how it is done in Canada in the province of British Columbia.

Alan Robertshaw, meanwhile, sees potential for an ancient technology to make a big comeback:

I would like to suggest a subject ie the reintroduction of sail into commercial shipping. The latter is currently a large contributor to the climate emergency as well as being a serious polluter of the oceans, issues which need to be addressed. Whilst initially a return to sail may seem retrograde and old school, this is not actually the case.

We’ve had a go at this subject before, but perhaps it is worth a second look. Future sailors indeed.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Cyborg seadog, tell me what you dream of

Where was the Upside?

In Catania, where Lorenzo Tondo showed us that refugees are far more than just uprooted unfortunates.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hannah Imordi, the winner of the Refugees Got Talent show in Catania. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/UNHCR

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