Humanity may never have had it as good, but there’s a big catch

According to Klaus Schwab, the Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, we have had three Industrial Revolutions since 1784 and are in the midst of a fourth. Since the steam engine was introduced in the 18th century and production was mechanized we have witnessed exponential growth in economic output and the longest sustained rise in living standards in human history. Take a look at the following charts from Our World in Data.

The charts above tell a good news story - over the past 200 years or so fewer people are living in extreme poverty, more are literate, and we’re living longer.

The catch is our good fortune has come at a significant cost to the environment. Let’s look at a couple more charts.

So at the same time our living standards have gone up, so have greenhouse gas emissions. And biodiversity and forest coverage have both decreased. We need to find a way to improve our wellbeing that doesn’t come at the expense of the natural environment and us displacing all the other species we share this planet with.