Colin Mason, a former senator in the Australian Federal Parliament, coined the term ‘2030 spike’ in 2002 to describe the confluence of global crises – climate change, population growth, resource depletion, international violence, disease – that seem likely to reach their peak around 20 years from now. A Short History of the Future, fully updated in 2006, was described in Resurgence as ‘An impressive tour of our current world: from sexual slavery to sailing ships, from malaria to microcredits, from nanotechnology to neopaganism, all the horrors and promises of our troubled Zeitgeist seem to be reflected here.’

Earthscan Ltd | Paperback 320 pp. |ISBN: 9781844073467