You are wrong, I am wrong, we are wrong

[firedragon]

I knew a couple of them based on knowing extreme poverty is much less today than in the past. I witnessed it in various trips to India. In 1974, I saw people living in the streat, wearing filthy clothes without even a cover over their head when they lay down to sleep.

In my last trip in 2012, the difference was obvious to my eyes. Poverty, yes. But the relative lack of utter abject poverty was obvious.

Still, I missed most of the questions.

Yeah. There are some third world countries where 99% of all girls go to school. Thats 1% more than boys.

 

[sayak83]

Excerpt from "Factfullness" by Hans Roslin. The books begins this way with a questionnaire. Try and find out if you are right or wrong in some of your answers and why.

1. In all low-income countries across the world today, how many girls finish primary school?
A: 20 percent
B: 40 percent
C: 60 percent

2. Where does the majority of the world population live?
A: Low-income countries
B: Middle-income countries
C: High-income countries

3. In the last 20 years, the proportion of the world population living in extreme poverty has …
A: almost doubled
B: remained more or less the same
C: almost halved

4. What is the life expectancy of the world today?
A: 50 years
B: 60 years
C: 70 years

5. There are 2 billion children in the world today, aged 0 to 15 years old. How many children will there be in the year 2100, according to the United Nations?

A: 4 billion
B: 3 billion
C: 2 billion

6. The UN predicts that by 2100 the world population will have increased by another 4 billion people. What is the main reason?
A: There will be more children (age below 15)
B: There will be more adults (age 15 to 74)
C: There will be more very old people (age 75 and older)

7. How did the number of deaths per year from natural disasters change over the last hundred years?
A: More than doubled
B: Remained about the same
C: Decreased to less than half

8. There are roughly 7 billion people in the world today. Which map shows best where
they live? (Each figure represents 1 billion people.)

The answers for this question is on an image and I can't seem to upload a snapshot of it. Apologies.

9. How many of the world’s 1-year-old children today have been vaccinated against some disease?
A: 20 percent
B: 50 percent
C: 80 percent

10. Worldwide, 30-year-old men have spent 10 years in school, on average. How many years have women of the same age spent in school?
A: 9 years
B: 6 years
C: 3 years

11. In 1996, tigers, giant pandas, and black rhinos were all listed as endangered. How many of these three species are more critically endangered today?
A: Two of them
B: One of them
C: None of them

12. How many people in the world have some access to electricity?
A: 20 percent
B: 50 percent
C: 80 percent

13. Global climate experts believe that, over the next 100 years, the average temperature will …
A: get warmer
B: remain the same
C: get colder

Here are the correct answers:
1: C, 2: B, 3: C, 4: C, 5: C, 6: B, 7: C, 8: A, 9: C, 10: A, 11: C, 12: C, 13: A
Score one for each correct answer, and write your total score on your piece of paper.

I got most of the answers right. But some questions are artificially skewed to provide optimistic answers. For example, the absolute number of critically endangered species has grown from 1996.

 

[Quintessence]

I got most of the answers right. But some questions are artificially skewed to provide optimistic answers. For example, the absolute number of critically endangered species has grown from 1996.

This is my major problem with this list. It glosses over where the costs of "human success" are being paid and how these costs intersect with humans. No mention of the huge increase in trash and wasteful consumerism, no mention of the sixth mass extinction, etc.

 

[joe1776]

....His conclusion - we are f*****d. Seemingly, because no matter what solutions we come up with for all our various problems, if the population continues to grow then all our solutions will just not work.

Is that a logical deduction? It seems to me that if we could solve the economic problems of 7 billion people, we could solve it for many millions more by the same methods. Yes, it's true that there's probably a cap on the maximum before we begin to get diminishing returns. Eventually, methods to stop the growth would be needed if the slowdown didn't occur naturally.

 

[sayak83]

Excerpt from "Factfullness" by Hans Roslin. The books begins this way with a questionnaire. Try and find out if you are right or wrong in some of your answers and why.

1. In all low-income countries across the world today, how many girls finish primary school?
A: 20 percent
B: 40 percent
C: 60 percent

2. Where does the majority of the world population live?
A: Low-income countries
B: Middle-income countries
C: High-income countries

3. In the last 20 years, the proportion of the world population living in extreme poverty has …
A: almost doubled
B: remained more or less the same
C: almost halved

4. What is the life expectancy of the world today?
A: 50 years
B: 60 years
C: 70 years

5. There are 2 billion children in the world today, aged 0 to 15 years old. How many children will there be in the year 2100, according to the United Nations?

A: 4 billion
B: 3 billion
C: 2 billion

6. The UN predicts that by 2100 the world population will have increased by another 4 billion people. What is the main reason?
A: There will be more children (age below 15)
B: There will be more adults (age 15 to 74)
C: There will be more very old people (age 75 and older)

7. How did the number of deaths per year from natural disasters change over the last hundred years?
A: More than doubled
B: Remained about the same
C: Decreased to less than half

8. There are roughly 7 billion people in the world today. Which map shows best where
they live? (Each figure represents 1 billion people.)

The answers for this question is on an image and I can't seem to upload a snapshot of it. Apologies.

9. How many of the world’s 1-year-old children today have been vaccinated against some disease?
A: 20 percent
B: 50 percent
C: 80 percent

10. Worldwide, 30-year-old men have spent 10 years in school, on average. How many years have women of the same age spent in school?
A: 9 years
B: 6 years
C: 3 years

11. In 1996, tigers, giant pandas, and black rhinos were all listed as endangered. How many of these three species are more critically endangered today?
A: Two of them
B: One of them
C: None of them

12. How many people in the world have some access to electricity?
A: 20 percent
B: 50 percent
C: 80 percent

13. Global climate experts believe that, over the next 100 years, the average temperature will …
A: get warmer
B: remain the same
C: get colder

Here are the correct answers:
1: C, 2: B, 3: C, 4: C, 5: C, 6: B, 7: C, 8: A, 9: C, 10: A, 11: C, 12: C, 13: A
Score one for each correct answer, and write your total score on your piece of paper.

My main argument against the book is much of the improvement is based on foundations that are extremely fragile.... the capital market and a resource intensive model of growth. As the 2008 crash, the recent pandemic and the increasing frequency of ecological disasters show.... the likehood of sustaining these development trajectories look dubious over the coming decades. The question is, are we nimble and wise enough to work on a sustainable foundation to our development even as we try to grow further. Otherwise these trends will all go the opposite way.

 

[Mock Turtle]

Is that a logical deduction? It seems to me that if we could solve the economic problems of 7 billion people, we could solve it for many millions more by the same methods. Yes, it's true that there's probably a cap on the maximum before we begin to get diminishing returns. Eventually, methods to stop the growth would be needed if the slowdown didn't occur naturally.

Just one opinion I suppose but he has been taken seriously seemingly. It appears to be about resources and logistics, in that whatever we do, even having some new miracle technologies, the figures just don't stack up. Wherever we look, we cannot provide for the growing population (and 10 billion isn't really an exaggeration probably) and their expectations, especially without the global cooperation required to achieve results. On the other hand, how we have reacted to the pandemic perhaps shows that we can do such if we got a grip of the issues and did seriously consider the implications of the course we are on. But let's face it, how many are actually opposed to capitalism, which for many does provide for the life they want to live yet also probably is the driving force ensuring we are going down the pan.

 

[firedragon]

My main argument against the book is much of the improvement is based on foundations that are extremely fragile.... the capital market and a resource intensive model of growth. As the 2008 crash, the recent pandemic and the increasing frequency of ecological disasters show.... the likehood of sustaining these development trajectories look dubious over the coming decades. The question is, are we nimble and wise enough to work on a sustainable foundation to our development even as we try to grow further. Otherwise these trends will all go the opposite way.

Well. Somewhere around the year 2000 marketers used to put "act of God" as a threat in their SWOT analyses. That just shows nothing is indispensable.