the glass half full

After Wendell Berry's glum pic and pronouncement over the weekend, this blog offers three reasons to see the glass half full:

Science writer Matt Ridley refuses to be downhearted quoting Lord Macaulay in 1830: 'Why is it that with nothing but improvement behind us we anticipate nothing but disaster before us?' (Hat-tip: A&L)

The New Yorker's David Owen says 'One beneficial consequence of the ongoing global economic crisis is that it has put a little time back on the carbon clock ...'

My editor at Intelligent Life wins the motion that 'in its appetite for culture the world is wising up more than it is dumbing down.'