The Fourth Wave

Foreword

IF EVER THE CHINESE CURSE, “May you live in interesting times,” has been true, it is during this time of transition for the world. The old tried and true ways are just not working anymore. It seems that when we solve one problem it comes back in a different form, and, what is more, five other problems pop up to take its place.

Technologies that have bettered the lives of a certain proportion of the world’s people have emerged from what this book calls the “Second Wave,” but they have also led to terrible side effects: three to four hundred species become extinct every day, the destruction of the rain forests is proceeding at a rate that is unthinkable, holes in the ozone layer grow at a rate double the worst predictions, thousands die ...