The Future

Published: June 1, 2020, 8:30 a.m.

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\\u2018The future is a foreign country; they do things differently there\\u2019 \\u2013 to misquote LP Hartley. Andrew Marr talks to Riel Miller, an economist at UNESCO, about the difficulties of understanding and predicting what happens in the future. Miller argues that individuals, institutions and governments fail to grasp its profound unpredictability, where the only certainty is radical change. He\\u2019s calling for a programme of future literacy, designed to challenge present complacency and improve preparedness for what\\u2019s on the horizon.

But given what we know about the world today, and what we can guess about the future, is it okay to have a child? That is the question posed by Meehan Crist, writer-in-residence in Biological Sciences at Columbia University. She tracks the resurgence of Malthus and his powerful, terrifying idea that if the global population grows too large, we are all doomed. Crist unpicks the argument that responsibility for stopping climate change and safeguarding the future rests solely with the individual.

Producer: Katy Hickman

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