Book review: ‘The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change’ by Al Gore
If you think that we are living in the new period of hyper-change; If you believe that the digital revolution is making world a global village; if you observe that global power is shifting from corridors of Europe and North America to the ancient routes of South Asia; In case, you don’t have an inch of doubt in the aforementioned statements then congratulations! The Future, Six drivers of global change is an apt read for you. Al Gore’s book covers all these perspectives comprehensively.
In order to warm up the reader, he opens up his discussion with a fascinating question, asked by a stranger “what are the main drivers of global change?”. This simple question led him to writing this book, comprising six hundred pages. Indeed, it is rightly said that it is not the answer that enlightens but the question.
Moving forward, he discusses the changing nature of the economy, in his very first chapter. The changing nature of required skills, job specification and descriptions, the rise of automation, and rapidly changing industries have been presented with a different approach. In order to bestow strength to his arguments, he adds some case studies like, the inclusion of robots by Electronic manufacturers in china.
The Global Mind, second driver of the change, brings interesting debate. Based on the digital revolution, it contains comprehensive SWOT of the growing digitalization. On one occasion, It talks about the growing interconnectedness for cooperation and on other hand, he discusses the “together but alone” angle of our lives.
Al Gore, the former vice president of the USA, throws light on China’s emergence and its policy of hegemony. Owing to the power shift after 2010 in terms of economy, China’s case has been discussed widely. He also puts a question mark on increasing effectiveness of International institutions like IMF and the World Bank , founded after WW-II.
Being an environmentalist, the author is worried about the widening gap between depleting natural resources and unbridled population. He introduces the reader with unknown terminologies and jargons like Food riots and water anarchy. He voices about the vanishing species, advocates the case of melting mountains and calls for the preservation of the environment.
All in all, this book is a raft of information and research work about the future. Simple content and tune of the book covers some shortcomings like too much use of technical terms, lengthy paragraphs and lack of headings. It is worth reading about the future Where our heirs will have great challenges and unprecedented opportunities, where technology will reign supreme, and where unskilled people will have no place to call office.
