Earth is in peril. Climate change is no longer a contentious theory, but a harsh reality that’s unfolding at an alarming rate in front of our eyes. If our current global economic system isn’t radically overhauled, and soon, then all that awaits our species is a whole lot of chaos on the way to mass extinction.
At least, this is the warning coming directly from Jeremy Rifkin, one of the world’s leading social and economic theorists. In his new doco, The Third Industrial Revolution: A Radical New Sharing Economy, Rifkin goes deep into the impending doom, then offers up a way to cut it off at the pass.
A man on many missions
A bright man looking to brighten the future. Source: SBS
Chancellor Angela Merkel enlisted his services while formulating a for Germany’s future and Premier Li Kequiang publicly acknowledged that he used The Third Industrial Revolution (i.e. the original book on which this doco is based) as a blueprint for much of China’s .
At present, Rifkin is hell-bent on helping humanity face up to the mess we’re in, and on encouraging young people to take up the mantle of cleaning it up.
The mess we’re in
Source: SBS
If we keep this up and fail to end our relationship with carbon, then over the next seven decades, we will lose over half the species currently alive on Earth. The planet will regularly fall victim to end-of-days kinds of storms the likes of which we’ve never seen before, and more and more populated coastline will end up swallowed by water. This isn’t a distant future kind of deal, but something today’s children will experience in their lifetimes.
Unless, of course, we embrace the third industrial revolution.
The third industrial revolution
Source: SBS
He envisions a radical shift from purchasing and selling to providing and reusing, and in the subsequent plummeting of needless waste. He believes the free and open sharing of knowledge will replace undue competitiveness and foster more genuine empathy among people of all walks of life.
If this all sounds a little lofty and out of reach, rest assured that Rifkin has given his visions of the future great thought and attention, and based them on existing, tangible technologies. In fact, his efforts in Germany demonstrate the sharing economy’s potential and all but prove the seeds of the new industrial revolution have already been sewn.
If you’re looking for a doco that’ll not only give you hope for a safer and more desirable future, but also empower you to feel capable of contributing to its success, then let Rifkin’s documentary into your life.
Watch The Third Industrial Revolution: A Radical New Sharing Economy at SBS On Demand:
