When I learned that I could expect to die within a year, I was at least comforted by the belief that humanity was slowly evolving toward the better. This may sound naïve — I knew we hadn't vanquished poverty, war, racism or inequality. But millions of people around the globe no longer lived in extreme poverty or died of preventable causes. And we seemed to have made steady advances in important realms; e.g., we humans had finally begun to understand our precious status as caretakers of the one Earth we possess (see the Paris climate talks).

Source: Los Angeles Times November 23, 2017 12:02 UTC