The End of Hitchhikers Inc?? How Failure to Manage Population and Consumption has Led to Climate Emergency and What We Can Do

This booklet is the outcome of my personal journey as I wrestled with the state of the world. The more that I learnt about the interrelated core issues regarding world population, consumption, and climate change (which I encapsulate in what I call the World Management Issue), the more my hope for the world was challenged. (The story at the beginning of the booklet was originally the way I chose to crystallise the core issues for myself.) I debated how I was going to respond to this. Do I carry on as normal and try to enjoy my life in what time I have left and forget everyone else? I had this nagging concern, though. How do I face my living descendants and what do I answer if I am asked what part I played in the state the world is in today? So, I felt a moral obligation to respond constructively to the World Management Issue, regardless of my expectations for the future. On reading a recent article by RethinkX (Heartquist, 2021), it is clear to me now that the world is not helpless, and it is physically possible with the technology of today to bring about needed major changes in response to this issue. What is in question is whether we have the collective will and the wisdom to do so in a timely manner. The Audience This modest size booklet does not pretend to replace the mountains of excellent and authoritative writings about this issue. Rather, its intention is to bridge the gap between the scientific community and the ordinary people of the world. It is for anybody from mid-high school upwards, including adults, academics, bureaucrats, and politicians. My intention is to encapsulate and crystallise the core concerns within the World Management Issue, and propose what we can do. It is just as suited to the more advanced person as it provides historical, analytical, and…