Al Gore is the writer of two previous books: An Inconvenient Truth, which spoke about the dangers of climate change and was made into an Academy Award-winning documentary, and The Assault on Reason, which examined democracy in America and the problems it faces. In The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change, Al Gore is more ambitious because he's trying to address more than one specific problem. You still see elements of his previous books in this one, such as, for example, an analysis of the American democratic system, which Gore says has been "hacked," but you also get a bigger picture of what the world is facing today.
As far as American democracy goes, Gore suggests that Congress has become dependent on lobbyists to raise money for re-election, thus giving a lot more power to large industries. This leads into greater inequalities in income and prevents reform which is particularly necessary at this time, given the high rate of unemployment and the problems facing the public education system. To Gore, it seems as though Americans, like ancient Romans, are dependent on "Panem et Circenses" or bread and circuses. In our modern world, the place of circuses is taken by television where people watch big industry-sponsored programs and advertisements which lull them into believing that all is right with the world.
However, as Gore points out, the environmental issues he has addressed earlier are far from being resolved. Carbon emissions are still extremely high and can lead to flooding in some places and the creation of a desert-like environment in others. The technology spurt we are seeing has led to problems with privacy which are only likely to keep growing. Medical technology, though beneficial, may have a sinister result in the future if people are allowed to choose the traits their unborn babies possess.
Overall, Gore addresses many important problems and issues that people ought to be looking at but that are largely going ignored. By writing about them, Gore hopes to spread information and, hopefully, lead into greater democratic reform. As people become more aware, they will take issues into their own hands instead of settling for the half-truths they are being fed.
Albert Gore was born in Washington D.C., the son of a U.S. representative later to become Senator. His childhood was spent partly in D.C. and partly on the family farm in Tennessee. He went to Harvard and married Mary Elizabeth "Tipper" Aitcheson whom he had known since his high school days, and they had four children before separating in 2010. He served in Vietnam, and, after returning dispirited, decided to attend Vanderbilt University Divinity School to explore spiritual issues. He served in the U.S. Congress for 16 years and as Vice President under the Clinton administration. In 2000, he ran for President and won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College to George W. Bush. He is an author who has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his environmental activism.
From the
former vice president and #1 New York Times bestselling author comes An
Inconvenient Truth for everything, a frank and clear-eyed assessment of six
critical drivers of global change in the decades to come.
Ours is
a time of revolutionary change that has no precedent in history. With the same
passion he brought to the challenge of climate change, and with his decades of
experience on the front lines of global policy, Al Gore surveys our planet’s
beclouded horizon and offers a sober, learned, and ultimately hopeful forecast in
the visionary tradition of Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock and John
Naisbitt’s Megatrends. In The Future, Gore identifies the
emerging forces that are reshaping our world:
•
Ever-increasing economic globalization has led to the emergence of what he
labels “Earth Inc.”—an integrated holistic entity with a new and different
relationship to capital, labor, consumer markets, and national governments than
in the past.
• The
worldwide digital communications, Internet, and computer revolutions have led
to the emergence of “the Global Mind,” which links the thoughts and feelings of
billions of people and connects intelligent machines, robots, ubiquitous
sensors, and databases.
• The balance
of global political, economic, and military power is shifting more profoundly
than at any time in the last five hundred years—from a US-centered system to
one with multiple emerging centers of power, from nation-states to private
actors, and from political systems to markets.
• A
deeply flawed economic compass is leading us to unsustainable growth in
consumption, pollution flows, and depletion of the planet’s strategic resources
of topsoil, freshwater, and living species.
•
Genomic, biotechnology, neuroscience, and life sciences revolutions are
radically transforming the fields of medicine, agriculture, and molecular
science—and are putting control of evolution in human hands.
• There
has been a radical disruption of the relationship between human beings and the
earth’s ecosystems, along with the beginning of a revolutionary transformation
of energy systems, agriculture, transportation, and construction worldwide.
From his
earliest days in public life, Al Gore has been warning us of the promise and peril
of emergent truths—no matter how “inconvenient” they may seem to be. As
absorbing as it is visionary, The Future is a map of the world to come,
from a man who has looked ahead before and been proven all too right.
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