First, and above all else, is climate change.
Compared to that, none of the others are in the same league. If we do
not get this one right, then there is no future – simple as. This
fact may not sink into people's heads, but this will not go away; and
it has to be tackled collectively and globally. There is no hiding
place from it, and there is no opt out from it. So that is why it is
number one.
Second is, and very much because of the first, the
need for conservation. The conservation of environments, of the
eco-systems in them and of the richness of those systems. We are
already witnessing a mass-extinction which we ourselves have
triggered. If we try very hard, we may stop it getting worse, and
perhaps, only perhaps, reverse it.
The third key problem is the need for
sustainability in the light of finite resources. We need to conserve
them because once they are gone, they are gone. We need to build
sustainability into all that we do. We need to build in resilience
into our life styles. We need to make our lives low impact.
The fourth key problem is globalisation. It is
just the one world, and, with modern communications, that is a very
small world. Nowhere much is more than twenty-four hours away from
anywhere else. Almost everywhere can be contacted instantly. This is
one deeply interwoven world. It is the first time in history that the
whole planet has been interconnected and interacting. We need to
learn how to live with that. Just now in Britain I think we are
failing in this – we are erecting barriers, as if we want the rest
of the world to go away – which of course it won't.
The fifth key problem is automation. The impact on
jobs is already considerable. It will get worse. As long as we tie
income directly to work for the mass of people, then the vanishing of
work will create mass poverty. Already our younger people are poorer
than the previous generation. This is the first time that has
happened for perhaps two hundred years. When large parts of the
population are redundant, then what?
The sixth key problem is inclusion. We cannot have
a world where only some – perhaps only a few – enjoy an
extravagant life, and where the rest are slowly pauperised – but
that is the prospect. A basic economic truth is that we need a
balance between consumption and production, between productive work
and meaningful life-styles, between consumers and producers.
Inclusion is about power and about sharing, about having a say and
being listened to; about who benefits from the bounty produced by our
amazing technologies; about the balance between communal and private
assets.
And the final key problem is alienation. The less
we include, the more we alienate. We need to think carefully about
modern life and how it can be enriched, about how well-being can be
increased, how life can be made more fulfilling. In this the notion
of the Gross National Happiness – as they have in Bhutan – must
play an increasing role. Wealth, beyond the point where primary needs
are fully met, adds very little: it is a diminishing return.
Meaningful occupation, the esteem of others, a sense of community, a
sense of purpose – these are what enriches lives and guards against
alienation. The alienated turn on the societies that have excluded
them, and, ultimately, we all pay the price for that.
