The End of Hitchhikers Inc?? How Failure to Manage Population and Consumption has Led to Climate Emergency and What We Can Do

Preface

This booklet is the outcome of my personal journey as I wrestled with the state of the world. The more that I learnt about the interrelated core issues regarding world population, consumption, and climate change (which I encapsulate in what I call the World Management Issue), the more it challenged my hope for the world. (The story at the beginning of the booklet was originally the way I chose to crystallise the core issues for myself.) I debated how I was going to respond to this. Do I carry on as normal and try to enjoy my life in what time I have left and forget everyone else? I had this nagging concern, though. How do I face my living descendants and what do I answer if I am asked what part I played in the state the world is in today? So, I felt a moral obligation to respond constructively to the World Management Issue, regardless of my expectations for the future. On reading a recent article by RethinkX (Heartquist, 2021), it is clear to me now that the world is not helpless, and it is physically possible with the technology of today to bring about needed major changes in response to this issue. What is in question is whether we have the collective will and the wisdom to do so in a timely manner.

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The Audience

This modest size booklet does not pretend to replace the mountains of excellent and authoritative writings about this issue. Rather, its intention is to bridge the gap between the scientific community and the ordinary people of the world. It is for anybody from mid-high school upwards, including adults, academics, bureaucrats, and politicians. My intention is to encapsulate and crystallise the core concerns within the World Management Issue, and propose what we can do. It is just as suited to the more advanced person as it provides historical, analytical, and action frameworks for thinking.

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Features

•  It addresses the issue from many different perspectives and includes many motivational aspects. 

•  A number of helpful analogies that capture the essence of various aspects of the issue.

•  There are extensive hot-linked references to recent websites which facilitate easy access to further material from the major players in the field and many others.

•  You will notice numerous photos that seem to have nothing to do with the contents of this booklet – or do they?

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Note

Any money raised from the sale of this booklet will be used in responding to the World Management Issue outlined in the pages that follow. Please buy today to help raise money towards the most important cause in the history of humanity!

Table of Contents

Preface

Table Of Analogies

1. The Story

2. Analysis

2.1. A Historical Perspective

2.2. A Time Perspective

2.3. Of What Can We Be Certain?

2.4. A Technological or World Management Issue?

2.5. Either We Manage World Population or Nature Will

3. What Are We to Do?

3.1. What Team Are We On?

3.2. What Can I Do at An Individual Level?

3.3. What Does the World Need to Do?

4. The Urgent Need to Act in the Light of Tipping Points

5. This Crisis was Both Predicted a Long Time Ago and Totally Avoidable

6. Regarding Risk

7. It's About Freedom

8. What About the Younger People?

9. A Tipping Point for Success

10. What Does it Take to Succeed Overall?

11. A Parting Joke

12. Appendix: What Does it Take to Succeed Overall (a technical version)

Acknowledgments

Video Resources

Works Cited

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*Note: This booklet is optimised for use electronically with hotlinks. See below and in the citations at the end.

Table Of Analogies

Analogies are a fast-track to understanding concepts. I hope you find them very useful!

The Story (how the world found itself in its predicament, see ch 1).

The Ferry in Danger of Capsizing (developed vs undeveloped countries, see  ferry  in ch 1).

An Unusual Race (goals of competition, see  race in ch 3.3).

The Smorgasbord (the necessity of equality, see  smorgasbord  in ch 3.3).

The Domino Effect (effecting change in a country,  dominos in ch 3.3).

Lighting a Campfire (tipping points, see  campfire in ch 4).

The School Crossing (risk taking, see  crossing  in ch 6).

The Abandoned Picnic (intergenerational neglect, see  picnic in ch 8).

Domino Analogy Pictures