What Kind of Future Will Our Children Inherit?

Making the world a better place is not simply about the glass being half full or half empty;it is both at the same time. With the complexity of global trends comes major challenges and one cannot say that one perception is correct and the other incorrect. It is much morecomplicated than that. We have an emergence of those who see the future as promising andperhaps even more harmonious than we have ever imagined as well as those who believethat we are declining and ruining ourselves. A number of institutions groups governments and individuals have taken these challenges to humanity seriously-have seen the light-and are trying to do something about the future state of the world.This book describes two sides to the future our children stand to inherit: the glass half fulland the glass half empty of what has been the trajectory of the world it seems since thebeginning of human history. The arc of human progress has at times taken major leapsforward; at other times it appears to have lain dormant only to burst forth with a newenergy at a later time. In this collection of writings we have attempted to show both sidesof the picture because to do otherwise would leave this endeavor incomplete. Depictingonly the negative would lead one to think that there is nothing positive moving us forward;depicting only the positive would suggest that we have no further work to do.