* 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.

Table of Contents:

Part I: Is there a Crisis?: The Drivers; Running Out of Fuel: The Coming Energy Crunch; Population and Poverty; Climate: How Long to Tipping Point?; Is There Enough Food and Water?; One World?; The Fourth Horseman; Part II: Directions: Which Way Science?; In the Genes: New Plants and People?; Values of the Sea; Multinationals: Good Business or Bad?; The Trouble with
Money; Part III: Upgrading the Individual:The Pursuit of Happiness; Love, Family and Freedom; Habitat: The Dilemma of the Cities; Making Education Work; Health and Wealth; Religion; Part IV: A New Society?: The Mechanics of Change; Automation and Employment; Travelling Less?; Life on Line; Information Overload; Bad Business: Slavery and the Toxic Culture; Running the Show; Getting the World We Want; Index