Review - "The Meaning of the 21st Century"
"A vital blueprint for ensuring our future."
Now there's a title! This is James Martin's view on the future environmental problems we are facing and how they can be avoided.
And we should listen to Mr Martin. James Martin's claim to fame is his book "The Wired Society" in which he predicted, accurately, the impact of the internet and the technologies that would be built upon it. So when he predicts how the environment will change and how these changes will effect humanity, you gotta listen. In the parlance, he has a "proven track record".
James Martin in the early part of this book describes his predictive techniques. Like many powerful techniques it is simple in concept and to describe, although it takes skill to apply sucessfully - otherwise everyone would be doing it!. Essentially, he explains, he looks for major long term trends. What he describes as "momentum trends". These are trends that will keep going and are very hard to stop. He identifies a number of such trends that will effect teh Earth and it's environment.
Martin then extrapolates the effect of these, and most importantly, their combined effect. His conclusions are shocking, frightening even. Your editor in chief prides himself on being aware of what goes on in the world - especially on environmental matters. But this book is packed full of facts and figures with lots of issues that I was not fully aware of. Many I had heard of but it was Martin's insight that drove home their true significance.
The depth of research is a tribute to Martin. He has condensed down a considerable body of work into a single book, albeit 420 odd pages. But this density of insight makes this a book you will not race through at one or two sittings. It is a good read though, but you will find you mind whirling with what you are presented with.
Many of Martin's concepts fit in with the views of FirstMistake.org. His idea of "Natural Capital" and how we should be putting a value on this as we would with any other asset drives right to the heart of what FirstMistake is all about. His concept of "leverage factors", where resources are applied as a lever and their force is multiplied, is what we are all about. If we do not ask for gas guzzling SUV's, and make fuel effeciency a prime factor when buying a car, then these are what business will deliver. This is the leverage we as individuals can apply. He points out that the current business model of constant growth cannot be sustained in a finite world.
However, not all of Martin's views concur with that of FirstMistake nor your Editor in Chief. He is squarely behind Windfarms - yet he is against concreting over land and wild spaces. He espouses the virtues of genitically modified foods, although he is not unequivocial about that issue.
The book is devided into four parts. "The Need for Transition", "The technologies of Sorcery", "Throuhg the Canyon" and "The Gateway to the Future", logically describing the problem, the technologies up and comming that may help (or hinder), the period of change , and the possibilities for a sustinable future. Martin does not just paint a picture of doom and gloom, but points at strategies to address the problems we face.
One such example is his apporach to the unsustainable population growth we currently see. His research indicates that teh most effective way to reduce birth rates is to teach women to read. Educating the female population has a dramatic effect in reducing birth rates and is something we should be doing in developing nations anyhow.
But Martin does not just write about thes things - he takes action too. He has founded the World Education Corps which sends volunteers round the World to teach teachers. He is applying his leverage principle too.
This is a well researched and thought provoking book. It is serious in tone and subject matter, but well worth the read. You will not agree with everything he says, but his contribution to the deabte is very worthwhile. I recommend this book wholeheartedly.
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Reply #1 on : Mon June 04, 2007, 18:16:31