I am totally convinced that the human condition is improving. Europe and America are totally unprecidented in terms of the number of people working together, and the amount of peace and levels of prosperity that we have enjoyed in the last 50 years. Even with that, we have been involved in wars and (in America at least) we have people living with hunger. I don't think it is impossible that humans will someday live in harmony with nature and each other, I even have moments of optimism, but if we take history and current affairs as our guide there is little evidence to suggest such a thing.
On pesticides, local acute toxicity in fact has little to do with ecological impact. In general toxic things are also unstable things, and thus don't persist in the environment for long enough to do serious harm. DDT for example was a problem specifically because it is relatively inert, that and it's ability to bioaccumulate.
As for work, I enjoy my work. I think that humans in general are happier when they feel that they are involved in and contributing to something important. Something larger than themselves. To do that does take some input of time, 4 hours a day seems a bare minimum.
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