We live in challenging times. Thanks to technological advances and increasing global interconnectedness, we have made great progress in addressing some crucial social problems. Between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate declined by more than half – from 90 to 43 deaths per 1,000 lives – while the global malaria mortality rate decreased by 58 percent. During the same time period, the number of people living in extreme poverty decreased globally from 1.9 billion to 836 billion. In terms of the environment, by 2015 ozone depleting substances were nearly eliminated, while 91 percent of the world’s population had access to improved sources of drinking water, as compared to 76 percent in 1990 (UN 2015).
Despite this progress, severe global challenges remain. We have entered the Age of the Anthropocene, a period in which human actions significantly influence the environment. The number of undernourished people increased from 777 million...