Dire times ahead! That is not the message that the young want to hear - but it is the stark reality that society will have to cope with. Industrial civilization has used up so much of the stored natural material wealth, including oil, that it is becoming so scarce that supply will not be able to meet demand in the future. Technology has provided the means to use this natural wealth but not the means to handle the material wastes produced or to repair the ecological damage that industrialization has done. So now the vast, aging infrastructure is addicted to using up the limited natural material capital as it runs out. Surviving future generations will curse their inability to do no more than make decisions about how to power down as the goods and services provided by civilization decline. They need a Grand Challenge Manifesto to guide them on the way down.
Denis Frith
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