Reason Enough to Hope: America and the World of the Twenty-first Century - Softcover

Morrison, Philip; Tsipis, Kosta

9780262519342: Reason Enough to Hope: America and the World of the Twenty-first Century

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0262519348 ISBN 13: 9780262519342

Publisher: MIT Press, 1998

In this "blue-sky" effort to rethink humanity's basic challenges, Philip Morrison and Kosta Tsipis-both eminent scientists with deepexpertise in arms control issues-sketch the broad outlines for aglobal approach to the problems of security and development.

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About the Author:

Philip Morrison is Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Kosta Tsipis is retired Director of the Program in Science and Technology for International Security of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

From Scientific American:

Painting on a broad canvas, Morrison and Tsipis develop a picture of what global conditions might be in the coming decades. Their book is about "what is possible and hopeful" in human affairs. They treat the issues of war and peace, the growing human population, the need for economic development to reduce mass poverty, and the price of continued growth in its effects on the global environment. Three major perils that lie ahead, the authors say, can be mitigated by intelligent action. The first is large-scale war; the intelligent action is to build a "system of Common Security among nations," meanwhile gaining firm control over all nuclear weapons and reducing military budgets below some 2 percent of gross domestic product. The second peril is "the unmet daily needs of billions of people," for which the response is "Common Development," financed in large part by the savings in military expenditures. The third is degradation of the global environment; the response is to "move toward a better and fairer regime of frugality and efficiency" that would make it possible to "confront under global consensus the environmental problems whose advent and whose remedy must be found on still grander a scale." In sum: "The optimistic message of this book stands on a simple recognition. The fundamental parameters governing the outlook for humanity's future in terms of energy, war, water, food, and population are hopeful."

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