WE HUMANS have a natural tendency to believe that our own generation is living in extraordinary times. The past is littered with apocalyptic predictions, and within living memory dire warnings have been made about nuclear conflagration, communist takeover, a new ice age, global famine, a population crisis, deadly new airborne viruses, the millennium bug, the singularity鈥� The list goes on.
As we approach the end of the first decade of the 21st century, apocalyptic thinking is thriving. There seems little doubt that we confront a host of unprecedented problems on an unprecedented scale, from economic meltdown to environmental degradation.
Are we just falling prey to our doomsaying disposition? No. The fact that so many earlier catastrophic predictions did not materialise does not mean that current anxieties are unfounded. The global reach of today鈥檚 problems means we are truly living in extraordinary times.
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That past predictions did not come true wasn鈥檛 entirely down to dubious forecasting or good luck, however. Humans may tend to make mountains out of molehills, but when confronted by genuine existential threats 鈥� which appears to be most of the time 鈥� we have the ability to face them down. As a species, we are good at meeting the challenges before us.
鈥淲hen confronted by genuine existential threats, we have the ability to face them down鈥�
It is in this spirit that we launch a four-week campaign exploring ways to make the world a better place. It will come as no surprise that our starting point is the power of reason. From that springs an ironclad belief that the world can be made better through the application of science and rational thinking.
Not everyone will be comfortable with this. Even before the invention of the atom bomb, it was clear that science holds immense dangers as well as immense promise. Even when scientists鈥� intentions are good, all too often their creations turn out to have unforeseen dark sides. The lead added to petrol to prevent engine knocking has dented the intelligence of generations of children. The 鈥渋nert鈥� gases invented for use in refrigerators are destroying the ozone layer. Again, the list goes on.
Overall, though, it is indisputable that science has improved our lives. In developed countries, people live longer, healthier and wealthier lives than in the past, while more and more people in developing countries are starting to enjoy similar benefits. As a result, the world is almost certainly a better place to live in today than ever before (see 鈥淚s the world getting better or worse?鈥�).FIG-mg27250901.jpg
Yet there is still so much to do. Too many people live short lives plagued by disease and poverty. Political decisions are too often taken without any evidence that they will work. Governments are too focused on material wealth as an indicator of well-being, and technologies that could improve lives are too often sidelined for irrational reasons. As the global population soars, we are starting to bump up against constraints on key resources, such as oil, water and phosphorus. And if all that isn鈥檛 bad enough, the developed world has already emitted such vast quantities of greenhouses gases that climate change is already becoming significant. We face a perfect storm of problems.
So talk of making the world a better place is not starry-eyed idealism. It is about survival 鈥� the long-term survival of the civilisation we have built and the lifestyles we have come to enjoy. On pages 30 to 39, we look at just a few of the radical changes we should be considering, from legalising drugs to taking Fridays off work, forever.
This is a theme that we鈥檒l return to over three more issues. Next week we鈥檒l move from what governments can do to what we can do as individuals, including giving readers a chance to take part in a pioneering project to work out what really happens to the stuff we throw out. We鈥檒l go on to highlight the technologies that are going to help us, and tackle the pressing issue of overpopulation. Finally, we鈥檒l ponder the profound changes we are making and look beyond the Anthropocene 鈥� the geological era in which humans dominate 鈥� to a future when the Earth can look after itself again.
Now, more than ever, science and reason must prevail. The scale of the challenge is hard to overstate, but New 杏吧原创 is optimistic that we can succeed: our boundless doomsaying is more than matched by our boundless creativity and our ability to, eventually, do the right thing.