In a new video giving a quick overview of his book 2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years, Randers gives details about world developments over the next 40 years, and raises essential questions about the planet's survival. He describes a future in 2052 characterized by slow economic growth, persistent unemployment, social friction, and increasing inequity against a background of steadily worsening climate conditions.
“This is going to happen sporadically – not in a predictive pattern – and after a while, these things are going to get so extreme that they will start to get scary,” says Randers. He admits to being purposefully provocative in his work: “My hope [is] that being sufficiently arrogant and unpleasant, and kicking democratic society hard enough, might trigger someone to get up and say ‘come on’ this is too stupid. That, of course, is the ambition.”
And what about ISO? According to Randers, the role of ISO is very important and very useful. “The fact that standards exist that force players to act – a platform for unifying the world under one umbrella (even at additional cost) – is wonderful,” he says. “The mere fact that ISO exists and has been able to survive does provide some hope because it means that our democratic society manages to make decisions in an egalitarian and equitable manner.”
Jørgen Randers co-authored The limits of Growth, a trail-blazing study of how humanity would adapt to the limits imposed by Earth's finite resources. It became the best-selling environmental book of all time. In 2012, he updated that 1972 study with the book 2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years.
To learn more about the new book and Randers’ vision of 2052, watch the new ISO video!
