Fighting back against the pessimism of doomers

Bryan Walsh is a senior editorial director at Vox overseeing the climate teams and the Unexplainable and The Gray Area podcasts. He is also the editor of Vox’s Future Perfect section and writes the Good News newsletter. He worked at Time magazine for 15 years as a foreign correspondent in Asia, a climate writer, and an international editor, and he wrote a book on existential risk.

From climate change to politics, a sense of pessimism about the direction of the world takes hold. To take just one example, according to one major international poll, a majority of young people agreed with the statement that “humanity is doomed.”

That pessimism is understandable given the chaotic state of the world as we see it presented to us. But it badly understates both the amazing material and political progress humanity has made over the past couple of centuries, and especially in the last few decades; and the realistic hope we should have for a future that won’t simply continue, but continue to get better.

That spirit — grounded in facts and realism, energized by what contributor Hannah Ritchie calls “changeable optimism” — is what animates this edition of The Highlight, created by the Future Perfect team at Vox. We hope our stories leave you a little more hopeful about the state of the world and its future — a future that is worth fighting for.

Tyler Comrie for Vox

The doomers are wrong about humanity’s future — and its past

The necessity of progress.

By Bryan Walsh

Tyler Comrie for Vox

The case for slowing down AI

Pumping the brakes on artificial intelligence could be the best thing we ever do for humanity.

By Sigal Samuel

Tyler Comrie for Vox

We need the right kind of climate optimism

Climate pessimism dooms us to a terrible future. Complacent optimism is no better.

By Hannah Ritchie

Tyler Comrie for Vox

Why the news is so negative — and what we can do about it

We can break the cycle of negativity bias in the media and get a more balanced view of the world.

By Dylan Matthews

How will we feed Earth’s rising population? Ask the Dutch.

The Netherlands’ hyper-efficient food system is both a triumph and a cautionary tale.

By Kenny Torrella

Native American histories show rebuilding is possible — and necessary — after catastrophe

What the medicine wheel, an Indigenous American model of time, shows about apocalypse.

By B.L. Blanchard

CREDITS

Editors: Bryan Walsh, Marina Bolotnikova, Elbert Ventura

Copy editors/fact-checkers: Elizabeth Crane, Kim Eggleston, Tanya Pai, Caitlin PenzeyMoog

Additional fact-checking: Anouck Dussaud, Sophie Hurwitz

Art direction: Dion Lee

Audience: Gabriela Fernandez, Shira Tarlo, Agnes Mazur

Production/project editors: Lauren Katz, Nathan Hall

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