There’s a broad consensus that the world is falling apart, with every headline reminding us that life is getting worse.

　　人们普遍认为世界正在分崩离析，所有新闻标题都在提醒我们，生活越来越糟糕。

　　Except that it isn’t. In fact, by some important metrics, 2016 was the best year in the history of humanity. And 2017 will probably be better still.

　　不过，事实并非如此。其实，按照一些重要的衡量标准，2016年是人类历史上最好的一年，而2017年或许会更好。

　　How can this be? I’m as appalled as anyone by the election of Donald Trump, the bloodshed in Syria, and so on. But while I fear what Trump will do to America and the world, and I applaud those standing up to him, the Trump administration isn’t the most important thing going on.

　　怎么会呢?我像大家一样，为唐纳德.特朗普胜选和叙利亚血腥冲突等等而震惊。但是，尽管我担心特朗普会对美国和全世界胡来，尽管我为站出来反抗他的人叫好，但特朗普政府并不是最值得我们关注的对象。

　　Polls show that about 9 out of 10 Americans believe that global poverty has worsened or stayed the same. But in fact, Every day, an average of about a quarter-million people worldwide graduate from extreme poverty, according to World Bank figures.

　　民调显示，有大约90%的美国人认为全球贫困问题出现恶化或者并未好转。而事实上，世界银行的数据表明，全世界每天平均有大约25万人脱离赤贫状态。

　　Or if you need more of a blast of good news, consider this: Just since 1990, more than 100 million children’s lives have been saved through vaccinations, breast-feeding promotion, diarrhea treatment and more. If just about the worst thing that can happen is for a parent to lose a child, that’s only half as likely today as in 1990.

　　或者，如果你需要更多的好消息，就看看这个：自1990年以来，通过注射疫苗、推广母乳喂养、治疗腹泻等手段，超过1亿儿童的生命得到拯救。如果最可怕的事情就是为人父母者失去一个孩子，那么今天出现这种情况的可能性仅为1990年的一半。

　　When I began writing about global poverty in the early 1980s, more than 40 percent of all humans were living in extreme poverty. Now fewer than 10 percent are. By 2030 it looks as if just 3 or 4 percent will be. (Extreme poverty is dined as less than $1.90 per person per day, adjusted for inflation.)

　　我于20世纪80年代初开始报道全球贫困问题时，有超过40%的全球人口在赤贫状态下生活，如今，这一比例降到了不足10%。时至2030年，这一比例将仅为3%-4%(赤贫是指每人每天生活费用不到1.9美元)。

　　For nearly all of human history, extreme poverty has been the dault condition of our species, and now, on our watch, we are pretty much wiping it out. That’s a stunning transformation that I believe is the most important thing happening in the world today — whatever the news from Washington.

　　几乎在整个人类历史上，赤贫都是我们身边一直存在的状态。如今，通过努力，我们在很大程度上消除了这种状况。我认为，无论华盛顿传出什么消息，这个惊人的转变都是当今世界发生的最重要的事情。

　　There will, of course, be continued poverty of a less extreme kind, smaller numbers of children will continue to die unnecessarily, and inequality remains immense. Oxfam calculated this month that just eight rich men own as much wealth as the poorest half of humanity.

　　当然，不那么极端的贫困状态仍将持续存在，数量较少的儿童依然面临死亡，贫富差距仍然很大。乐施会本月估计，8个富豪拥有的财富就相当于一半最贫困人口拥有的财富。

　　Yet global income inequality is actually declining. While income inequality has increased within the U.S., it has declined on a global level because China and India have lifted hundreds of millions from poverty.

　　不过，全球收入差距已不断缩小。尽管美国的收入差距出现扩大，但由于中国和印度有大量人口脱贫，所以全球范围的差距在缩小。

　　All this may seem distant or irrelevant at a time when many Americans are traumatized by Trump’s inauguration. But let me try to reassure you, along with myself.

　　由于许多美国人正在为特朗普就任总统而苦恼，上述消息或许显得过于遥远或者毫不相干。不过，让我试着打消你们的顾虑。

　　On a recent trip to Madagascar to report on climate change, I was struck that several mothers I interviewed had never heard of Trump, or of Barack Obama, or even of the United States. Their obsession was more desperate: keeping their children alive. And the astonishing thing was that those children, despite severe malnutrition, were all alive, because of improvements in aid and health care — rlecting trends that are grander than any one man.

　　最近前往马达加斯加报道气候变化问题时，我吃惊地发现，我采访的几位母亲从未听说过特朗普或奥巴马，甚至没听说过美国。她们更急切关注的问题是：如何养活自己的孩子。令人惊讶的是，尽管这些孩子严重营养不良，但由于援助和医疗方面的改善，他们都还活着，由此展现的趋势比任何个人都更具说服力。

　　Some of the most remarkable progress has been over diseases that — thank God! — Americans very rarely encounter. Elephantiasis is a horrible, disfiguring, humiliating disease usually caused by a parasite, leading a person’s legs to expand hugely until they resemble an elephant’s.

　　同时，我们在攻克疾病方面也取得了最了不起的进展——谢天谢地——尽管在美国很少发生。象皮病是一种损毁外形的可怕疾病，通常由寄生虫引起，导致人腿严重变粗，变得像大象的腿一样。

　　Yet some 40 countries are now on track to eliminate elephantiasis. When you’ve seen the anguish caused by elephantiasis — or leprosy, or Guinea worm, or polio, or river blindness, or blinding trachoma — it’s impossible not to feel giddy at the gains registered against all of them.

　　不过，如今有约40个国家即将消灭象皮病。当你看到象皮病、麻风病、麦地那龙线虫、小儿麻痹症、河盲症或者致盲性砂眼带来的痛苦，就不可能不为在防治这些疾病方面取得的进展感到欣喜。

　　There’s similar progress in empowering women and in reducing illiteracy. Until the 1960s, a majority of humans had always been illiterate; now, 85 percent of adults are literate. And almost nothing makes more difference in a society than being able to read and write.

　　此外，女权和降低文盲率领域亦取得了类似进展。直到20世纪60年代，文盲率还一直超过50%;如今，有85%的成年人能够识字，而读写能力可以使一个社会发生最显著的改变。

　　Remember: The most important thing happening is not a Trump tweet. What’s infinitely more important is that today some 18,000 children who in the past would have died of simple diseases will survive, about 300,000 people will gain electricity and a cool 250,000 will graduate from extreme poverty.

　　记住：最重要的事不是特朗普的推文。比之更重要的是，以往有约1.8万名儿童会死于不起眼的疾病，如今却能活下来;有约30万人将会用上电;有多达25万人将会摆脱赤贫状态。

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