As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, the world seems troubled, from the Hamas-Israel stand-off in Gaza to Syria’s bloody civil war to the recent fighting in Congo. Americans looking out at the world from family dinner tables would be right to fear that we live in a turbulent time when global misunderstandings, violence, and conflicts abound.
But these crises should not obscure a much more optimistic perspective about the future. We also live at a time of real promise, characterized by some little noted and positive trends that could very well make the next few decades an era of remarkable human progress.
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We may need to see some optimism like this, but I cannot understand how anyone can write about the future without mentioning climate change. We can be greatly thankful that Mitt Romney, dubious about the whole problem, was not elected; but the President, despite some steps that he has taken, has said that he will not push for a carbon tax (or, implicitly, for cap and trade) so that there is small chance of a quick cut in carbon emissions worldwide.