The paper is an invited comment to a paper of Lord Martin Rees, presindent of the Royal Society, which has as a title "Why the end of the world might be nigh" .
I argue that many indicators show that the world seems to be on an explosive track: global population growth, greenhouse gas emissions, depletion of natural resources, the world has become less stable because less complex. Whereas before a myriad of slow and self-controlling processes stabilized the world, today a few fast operating and often mutually reinforcing processes dominate: the North-South divide, military hegemony, fossil fuel use, technological development. With less complexity the world has become inherently less stable and a careful management, based on continuous observation, understanding and adjustments is now required. A major question however arises: How much control of the Earth-Man system is compatible with how much freedom and democracy? Is a trade-off acceptable or even needed?
RAES Frank;
2009-12-03
Europe's World
JRC47086
1782-0642,
http://www.europesworld.org/Portals/0/PDF_version/EW10_FINAL_ENG.pdf,
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC47086,
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