Reasons to Rejoice Bigly.

30th December 2016

Almost everyone I know has their knuckles dragging at the end of this notable year, notable for the rise of corrupt populist leaders and armies of self-appointed guardians of the white race. Never has the corporate takeover of western democracies been clearer.   I feel as though the stuffing has been knocked out of me; all the hope I have entertained about the progress of humankind has gone muffled into my chest. Democracy - ha! Tell me another one!

But Iain MacWhirter, a Scottish journalist I admire "bigly" gives us a reminder, at this turning of the year, that things aren't as bad as they seem, and so I am going to pass him on to you, because I have scoured the cup of my own optimism and come up with mere dregs.

So, here are the reasons MacWhirter gives for good cheer at the onset of the year 2017:

The number of deaths from war is down three quarters on the mid 1970s. Terrorist deaths have fallen by a similar amount. The number of dictatorships has reduced from 90 to 20 in the last 30 years and democracies are up from 40 to 100.

Poverty breeds conflict, so it is reassuring that global poverty continued its rapid decline in 2016. According to the World Bank, the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen over the past 30 years from 52 per cent to 21 per cent; that’s 1.5 billion fewer people living below the threshold of survival of one dollar a day at 1990 prices.

Then there's climate change,of course, and yet the news here isn’t entirely bleak either. Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels stopped rising in 2016, according to the climate change scientists at University of East Anglia. In key countries like the United States, such emissions are actually falling. Across the world, renewables are becoming economically viable.

This is a revolution even Mr Trump can’t halt. The cost of solar power has halved in the past decade and is on a par with wind energy. China is undergoing a renewables revolution and is now the largest generator of solar power in the world. Countries like Morocco are building vast solar farms.

The poisoned area around the dead Chernobyl nuclear plant in the Ukraine is to be turned into a massive solar energy project. In Scotland, the wind is blowing in the right direction. In August this year, for the first time ever, wind turbines generated more electricity than is used in Scotland in a single day and the country is on course to meet its renewables targets ahead of schedule.

Domestic violence and sexual crime rose last year, leading to headlines about an “epidemic” of rape and sexual abuse. But the increase is largely down to these crimes being reported and recorded in a way they never were before.

In almost every respect, society is becoming calmer, happier and safer, even as there is moral panic about abuse, crime and terror. Longevity has been increasing by a year every five years. Deaths from heart disease and strokes are down by one-third since 2007.

Medical advances tumble out of the laboratories. T-cell immunotherapy has achieved “remarkable” results with leukaemia patients; deep sea microbes are proving “miraculous” in reducing prostate cancer; and 2016 even saw the first successful penis transplant.

Good reasons, so to speak, to keep your pecker up in 2017. Happy New Year.