Category: Series: World Social Indicators 2008
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WSI: Conclusion
We began this series looking at what the prophet Isaiah recorded concerning the "new creation" in Isaiah 65:17-25. This passage directly references long lives, no infant mortality, and a society full of peace and justice. These circumstances are characteristic of what the Hebrews called shalom. I made the case that as Christians bearing witness to…
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WSI: Addressing Global Warming
The hot environmental topic today (pun intended) is anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change. The leading theory is that CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels are causing a greenhouse gas effect that is causing global warming. I don’t take this as an indisputable fact. However, I’m not interested in debating that point here. We will assume that…
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WSI: Destroying the Environment?
Listening to environmental activists today, you get the idea that we have only two options. An ascetic no, economic growth world where we "live within limits" and protect the environment. An economically robust world that collapses from exhausting resources and destroys the ecosystem. Is there a third option? Is there an option that leads to…
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WSI: Malthus Returns (Parochialism of the Present)
One of the biggest challenges in appreciating the world trends we've examined in this series is "parochialism of the present." This refers to the twofold trap we fall into if we do not try to view our circumstances from beyond our narrow sliver of time. One trap is that we ignore history and fail to…
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WSI: Demographic Transition Model
To understand technophysio evolution's impact on the global population, we can look at what demographers call the Demographic Transition Model (DTM). The DTM is a model reflecting the experience of Western Europe, extrapolated to interpret anticipated global demographic trends. There are four phases to the DTM: Stage 1: Death rates (deaths per 1,000 population) and birth…
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WSI: Technophysio Evolution
Two “L” shaped graphs highlight the extraordinary changes in human prosperity over the last twelve thousand years. After millennia of infant mortality rates of 200-300 per 1,000 and life expectancy at birth of 20-30 years, most people today live in nations where infant mortality rates are dropping below 50, on their way to the single-digit…
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WSI: Other Measures
The relationship between longer lives, more income, greater freedom, and other aspects of prosperity also show up in other indicators. Here are just three: Keep in mind that the world's population has nearly doubled over the time elapsed in these graphs. Thus, the absolute numbers grow rapidly if the percentages are increasing. I could go…
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WSI: Political and Economic Freedom
The previous four posts have illustrated the improvement in prosperity spreading across the globe as measured by long life and the soaring improvements in economic status. But there is at least one other measure of prosperity we need to visit. What about political freedom and civil liberties? At the close of the eighteenth century, the…
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WSI: Regional Variation in the Global Economic Expansion
Economic historian Angus Maddison offers some other powerful insights into the recent global economic expansion by doing some regional analysis. The popular history of the world is that through colonization, the West European nations enriched themselves by robbing other regions of the world of their resources, thus driving them into destitution. Let's take a look…
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WSI: Worldwide Per Capita Income
We have seen how prosperity, measured in terms of long life, is spreading throughout most of the planet. Yet when most people think of the disparity between nations, they usually think in terms of income levels. Income is correlated with other factors that empower us to survive and thrive. The common refrain we hear today…