The sane alternative : a choice of futures / James Robertson.

"More and more people believe that the human race must break through to a new kind of future. Failure will mean disaster; success will mean an important upward step on the ladder of evolutionary progress. Many of us see this breakthrough as the central project, the historic task, for the two or three generations living at the present time the task which gives meaning to our lives. Some of us sense that a threefold era is now ending: first, the age which began with the industrial revolution two hundred years ago; second, the age of European ascendancy which began with the Renaissance and Reformation five hundred years ago; and, third, the age of the successor civilisations to Athens, Jerusalem, and Rome which began roughly with the birth of Christ two thousand years ago. This suggests a historical perspective, and a measure of our task as midwives to a new future. I first became aware of the need for this book in the mid-1970s, while talking about present problems and future possibilities with people in Britain, Europe and North America. A clear discussion document was needed, reasonably short, which would suggest: what a sane, humane, ecological future will be like, as contrasted with other possible visions of the future; by what kind of process that future can be created; what kind of activities will contribute to bringing it about." -- From Introduction.