Colin Mason aims to cut through the rhetoric and often conflicting information - on depleted fuel supplies, rampant population growth, poverty, climate change and famine - to illustrate a broad picture of the world as it is and the action we should take to avoid catastrophe.

The 2030 decade is expected to see six "drivers" converge with unprecedented force in a statistical "spike" on the graph paper of life. Depleted fuel supplies, rampant population growth, poverty, climate change, famine and water shortages are all on a crash course that could plunge the world into a global dark age.Colin Mason aims to cut through the rhetoric, reams of often conflicting information and doomsaying to illustrate a broad picture of the world as it is and the courses of action that we need to take now to avoid catastrophe. With over 100 priorities for immediate action to prevent crisis in the future, the book presents a way forward to a bright and prosperous future for all people.

Part I: Crisis Mode - The Drivers - Running Out of Fuel: The Coming Energy Crunch - Population and Poverty - Climate: Too Hot or Too Cold - Famine: 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 - Conclusion: World to Come - Index