I think that the great success of modern civilization could be misleading. Global warming is a reality (despite the fact that it is extremely cold today, in Toronto where I live) and the sea level is rising. Not a lot so far, but much more is coming. Meanwhile, acidified and overfished oceans have greatly reduced fish stock. The Sahara desert is spreading southward. The world is filled with toxic pollutants, and the dwindling fish stocks are also contaminated with mercury. We have changed the world in ways that no previous civilization has done. So far, everything still seems pretty much normal, but it is not hard to foresee a crisis that is coming. The very high global population is, as you say, a sign of success, but it is also dangerous. There is only so much land in the world, and the more people there are, the more land is needed for farming, and for housing, and for industry, and for all other uses. The more people there are the more resources will be consumed, the more fossil fuels will be burned, the more carbon dioxide will be released into the atmosphere. Every person has a carbon footprint, and those are only getting larger. Impoverished Chinese rice farmers had much smaller carbon footprints than the growing Chinese middle class of today. Now, I am not saying that China should not become more developed and have a higher standard of living; they have exactly as much right to a higher standard of living as anyone else does. But that is well over a billion people, more than three times the population of the US, who are now starting to consume resources at a much higher level and to produce carbon dioxide and other industrial wastes at a much higher level. This is not a comprehensive list of the environmental risks that we face, it is just a quick overview. Everything looks great in 2015, as you say; the world looks much better than it did at any time in the past. But that is not sustainable. And perhaps worst of all, when and if things do get really bad, there is still the possibility of nuclear war. And then things get really bad. North Korea has nuclear weapons, Pakistan has nuclear weapons, and Iran is probably going to have them in the near future despite all efforts to stop them. None of those nations can remotely be trusted in any way. Muslim terrorism rages on throughout much of Africa and the middle east. These kinds of problems can get out of control. So I think the world faces terrible dangers. But as of the present moment, things are good.