For more than fifty years, I have worked as a journalist, editor, entrepreneur, and activist, trying to understand how we can move the world in the right direction. By “the right direction,” I do not mean saving the planet. The planet will survive. The real challenge is ensuring that it remains a place where humans can thrive. My children and grandchildren, and the generations that follow them, will face difficult times. I feel responsible for that.
Climate change. Polarization. Inequality. Loss of biodiversity. Looking back, I sometimes feel I have contributed to all of it in one way or another. Guilty as charged. But is it still possible to solve these problems?
I believe it is.
For The Only Possible Solution, I explored the work of more than one hundred scientists, economists, activists, entrepreneurs, and other bright minds. Not because they always agree with one another, but because they share one important characteristic: they think long term. Their vision extends far beyond a four-year election cycle or a company’s next quarterly report.
This book is not a prediction. It is a search for the future that becomes possible when we learn to think in generations again. And when we recognize that no problem exists in isolation. Everything is connected. Understanding those connections is the solution I write about.
I believe optimism is not a personality trait.
It is a choice.
And perhaps a necessary one.
The Only Possible Solution: How to Shape the Future for Our Next GenerationsFons Burger