Thinking on Sunday: Has human prosperity peaked already?

Hazhir Teimourian believes that the underlying main cause of the present turmoil in Arab countries is large numbers of young people unable to find worthwhile jobs.

Hazhir Teimourian
Will the future bring only greater poverty and more turmoil? Is it too late for us to take preventive action? Do we have any real leadership in the world, or are we merely drifting? These questions sound hyperbolic and we must hope they will prove just that. But the signs are frightening. We are not reversing climate change and the population of the world, particularly in the tropics, continues to grow rapidly. Unicef predicts that there will be over one billion under-18s in Africa alone by the middle of the century, only 36 years away. If that extra population were to achieve a decent standard of living, the consequences for the climate would be dire. The prediction is that it will not achieve even a modest standard of living, one of the results being severe migration pressures towards the industrialised world.

Hazhir Teimourian believes that the underlying main cause of the present turmoil in Arab countries is large numbers of young people unable to find worthwhile jobs. He hopes to be proved mistaken, so please come along and show him!

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