Is the world getting better or worse?

From 1982 to 2006, the five-year survival rate for women with breast cancer rose from 74 percent to 98 percent, when the disease is caught early.

Since the start of the Iraq War, 3,060 Americans have been killed and 22,951 wounded. More than 35,000 Iraqi citizens have been killed as well.

This week, a partnership of U. S. businesses and environmental groups joined forces to call on the federal government to enact legislation requiring reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.

A Nature Conservancy study shows that 5,121 flowering plants are in danger of disappearing, mostly because of lost habitat and environmental pollutants. Meanwhile, the wolf population is coming back so strongly that it may soon be removed from the endangered list.

Wesley Autrey, a New York City construction worker and Navy veteran, threw himself on a stranger convulsing on the subway tracks, saving both their lives as five cars rolled inches above their heads.

A Boone County man was arrested Tuesday for posting Internet pictures of himself having sex with an 18-month-old girl. He has been charged with seven counts of sodomy and sexual abuse.

Every day, our world produces stories as diverse as these -- inspiring, discouraging, enlightening, disgusting.

Sometimes we as an editorial board toss around the question of whether the world, overall, is getting better or worse. Is civilization progressing or regressing? Are human beings becoming wiser and more civilized, or more brutal and debased?

Do you think of human life in those terms? Where do you come down on the issue, and what specific developments give you hope or leave you despairing?