The fact that the blessings are so mixed is a big reason it is so hard to feel blessed. Most of the plusses listed here are environmentally extravagant and inequitably distributed among the peoples of the world, which gives one pause before proclaiming our times the best times ever.
More pause is provided by the grim specifics of decay.
Befoulment of everything. Urban air and rivers may have gotten cleaner in Western countries, but the air and water in many other places is getting much worse as developing nations industrialize, and once-pristine environments have degraded everywhere. Even if the West has cleaned up living spaces in big cities, the amount of really nasty waste, including nuclear waste, spread elsewhere remains enormous. Using up resources. Yet if you really try to take seriously this robbery of future generations, you risk either marginalizing yourself into environmental fanaticism or giving in to fatalist cynicism about the likelihood of meaningful change.