A Short History of the Future

* This is a revised edition of Colin Mason's "The 2030 Spike", that received the following acclaim: * "A bold, thought-provoking and ultimately rewarding [read], well-researched, full of ideas and thus a good, all-round primer on the state of the planet." -- BBC Wildlife * "An impressive tour of our current world: from sexual slavery to sailing ships, from malaria to microcredits, from nanotechnology to neopaganism, all the horrors and promises of our troubled Zeitgeist seem to be reflected here." -- Resurgence * "Only the foolhardy would surely dare leave it unread on the shelf." -- International Affairs Has the future a future? Are we bringing history to an end? If we look at any one of several individual but critical trends, it would appear that history might have only a short way to run. This book describes the seven natural and human-made drivers that will converge around the year 2030 and wreak havoc: § depleted fuel supplies § massive population growth § poverty § global climate change § famine § growing water shortages § international lawlessness. In this compelling book, Colin Mason explains in clear and irrefutable terms what is going on'largely below the surface of our daily or weekly news bulletins. The picture he paints is stark, and yet it is not bleak. Being forewarned, we are forearmed, and he draws on his own extensive political experience to describe how much we can do as individuals, and above all collectively, not merely to avert crisis but to engineer thoroughgoing change that can usher in genuinely sustainable and valuable alternatives to the way we live now.

Colin Mason was a senator in the Australian Federal Parliament for nine years and served on the Senate Standing Committee for Science and Environment