War. Pandemic. Mass slaughter. A climate being catastrophically transformed. A world that seems to be hurtling towards its end.

Our own world? No. This is the world of the 14th Century, when the Black DeathA bacterial infection that killed as much as 60% of the population of Europe and 33% of the Middle Eastern population. killed half of all people in Europe.¹ In central Asia the ruthless warlord TimurMongolian ruler of Samarkand who led his nomadic hordes to conquer an area from Turkey to Mongolia (1336-1405). massacred 17 million people, around 5% of the global population,² and the Little Ice AgeA climate interval of much cooler weather that occurred in Britain in the 17th century and lead to several big freezes. caused widespread famine.

The truth is, for most of our ancestors, the 21st Century - largely stable, peaceful, and prosperous - would seem like an impossible dream.

That is the argument of economist Sergei Guriev, who thinks we should all be more optimistic about our own times. So in spite of everything, here are five reasons to be cheerful today: 

Far right rejections. In France, and likely soon in the USA, voters are rejecting the far-right.

Climate solutions. Last year global renewable energy capacity grew by a massive 50%, and it is on course to more than double again by the end of the decade.³ 

Getting richer. Just 8% of the world today lives in extreme poverty, down from 40% just 50 years ago.⁴

Equality rising. In most of the rich world, the Gini coefficient, a measures of income inequality, is continuing to drop.⁵

Child mortality. Since 1990, the number of deaths of children under five has dropped by 59%.⁶

These are just a few of the reasons why many think the news is too much doom and gloom. They say it fills people with fatalism and makes them lose any will to make things better.

Alternatively, it may cause them to support unnecessarily drastic solutions for problems that are already being solved.

But others say bad news can be a good thing. It is important, they argue, to punch through the complacency and make people see what is really wrong.

Otherwise, when bad things happen, they will come as a surprise, killing people's faith in journalists and political leaders.

But some say the important thing is not good or bad news, but nuanced news. For example, the truth is that the world's revolution in renewable energy and that in poverty-reduction are both being led by China.⁷

This may be good news for the world at large, but it is bad news for the West, for whom China is a powerful rival.

Is the news too negative?

Yes: A constant diet of bad news makes people either depressed or angry. Either way, it makes the task of mobilising them behind solutions to our real problems much harder.

No: Most of us live in soft little cocoons of safety. We know nothing about how hard life is for others. On those rare occasions our bubble is breached, it comes as a huge shock. Bad news primes us for disaster.

Or... Most news is not intrinsically "good" or "bad": it is good or bad, or both, for different people. We need a more nuanced understanding of the world and the way it benefits some and harms others.