Frightening future ahead? ; Letters

I recently bought a book by James Martin called The Meaning ofthe 21st Century. In the book he issues warnings about the future.He is a British engineer, scientist and analyst. He successfullypredicted the internet and the mobile phone and was employed by theUS Defence Department and IBM. So successful was this entrepreneurthat he made enough to acquire his own island in Bermuda and donatePounds 150m to Oxford University to create The James Martin 21stCentury School. This links institutions and academics to findsolutions to the problems facing our planet in the next 50 years orso and uncover opportunities.

An analysis by Norman Myers showed that 75 per cent of theworld's most threatened mammals, birds and amphibians occupied just2.3 per cent of the planet's surface. In response to this and sincepoliticians would do nothing, The MacArthur Foundation and TheGordon Moore Foundation provided $850 million to preserve thesebiodiversity hot spots.

James Martin's analysis identifies 16 'mega-problems' that willcreate a perfect storm by 2050. They are: global warming, populationgrowth, water shortages, destruction of life in the oceans, massfamine, the spread of deserts, pandemic disease, extreme poverty,the growth of shanty 'cities' around major cities, unstoppableglobal migrations, non-government organisation with extreme weapons,violent religious extremism, runaway computer intelligence,civilisation ending wars, threats to human existence, a new darkage.

His predictions in the book are dire and he uses the analogy ofour earth being like a boat heading happily along a river. A canyonlies almost immediately ahead and the ride will become much rougheras we enter the rapids for 40 years approaching a bottleneck and theperfect storm.

James Martin is clearly no tree-hugging impoverished survivor ofthe hippie era, but the following sentences are just some of hiswise words as to what politicians must do to avoid the destructivepower of the perfect storm. "The causes of hunger, despair andextreme poverty need to be removed";"We must no longer fightnature";"We live on a small planet, we must make its institutionsand codes of behaviour robust"; "Many of the problems of the canyonshould be dealt with before the severe tensions of the canyon buildup";"We are largely ignoring the factors leading to climate change".

For those interested in his wisdom please see the websitewww.jamesmartin.

com. Only ecological and people focussed governments, informed byscience, not using political spin, protecting the natural world cansave the diversity of life on earth and perhaps even the human race.We cannot depend on the altruism of a few kind hearted rich people.The 2011 May elections offer an opportunity to begin the process ofchange to a sustainable future. you and your children may only have40 years left. We need to see through green-wash and adopt trueGreen ethics.

NICK HALES Uphill Drive, Bath