Only the foolhardy would surely dare leave it unread on the shelf.' International Affairs 'This is a bold, thought-provoking and ultimately rewarding book, well-researched, full of ideas - and thus a good, all-round primer on the state of the planet.' BBC Wildlife 'Mason believes that within 30 years six factors - depleted fuel supplies, population growth, poverty, famine, water shortages and climate change - will converge to tear humanity apart.

'Is this a book you can afford to ignore?. Part I: Crisis Mode - The Drivers - Running Out of Fuel: The Coming Energy Crunch - Population and Poverty - Climate: Too Hot or Too Cold - Famine: Food and Water - One World? - The Fourth Horseman - Part II: Directions - Which Way Science? - In the Genes: New Plants - and People? - Values of the Sea - Multinationals: Good Business or Bad? - The Trouble with Money - Part III: Upgrading the Individual - The Pursuit of Happiness - Love, Family and Freedom - Habitat: The Dilemma of the Cities - Making Education Work - Health and Wealth - Religion - Part IV: A New Society? - The Mechanics of Change - Automation and Employment - Travelling Less? - Life on Line - Information Overload - Bad Business: Slavery and the Toxic Culture - Running the Show - Conclusion: World to Come - Index Colin Mason cuts through the rhetoric and reams of conflicting data to muster the evidence to illustrate a broad picture of the world as it is, and our possible futures. Depleted fuel supplies, massive population growth, poverty, global climate change, famine, growing water shortages and international lawlessness are on a collision course with potentially catastrophic consequences. Within 30 years, in the 2030 decade, six powerful `drivers' will converge with unprecedented force in a statistical spike that could tear humanity apart and plunge the world into a new Dark Age.

The 2030 spike by colin mason