Planet in Peril
Humanity's Four Greatest Challenges and How We Can Overcome Them

Exploration of the top four mega-dangers facing humankind and plots a hopeful path to dealing with them through global governance.

Michael D. Bess (Author)

9781009160339, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 October 2022

452 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 3 cm, 0.79 kg

'Written in vivid prose and combining history, science, technology, and politics in reflection and analysis, Planet in Peril offers a single explanatory framework for understanding these seemingly disparate challenges, sketching a plausible roadmap toward a safer, more democratic future for us all.' Josh Hamel, Chapter 16, a Publication of Humanities Tennessee

Written by an award-winning historian of science and technology, Planet in Peril describes the top four mega-dangers facing humankind – climate change, nukes, pandemics, and artificial intelligence. It outlines the solutions that have been tried, and analyzes why they have thus far fallen short. These four existential dangers present a special kind of challenge that urgently requires planet-level responses, yet today's international institutions have so far failed to meet this need. The book lays out a realistic pathway for gradually modifying the United Nations over the coming century so that it can become more effective at coordinating global solutions to humanity's problems. Neither optimistic nor pessimistic, but pragmatic and constructive, the book explores how to move past ideological polarization and global political fragmentation. Unafraid to take intellectual risks, Planet in Peril sketches a plausible roadmap toward a safer, more democratic future for us all.

1. Introduction
Part I. Existential Threats: The Four Most Pressing Dangers Facing Humankind: 2. Fossil fuels and climate change
3. Nukes for war and peacetime
4. Pandemics, natural or bioengineered
5. Artificial intelligence: extreme reward and risk
Part II. Strategies and Obstacles: The Solutions We Need, and What's Preventing them from Being Realized: 6. How to beat climate change
7. Wise governance for nukes and pandemics: where to go faster and where to slow down
8. Controlling things vs. controlling agents: the challenge of high-level AI 160
9. The international dimension: where every solution stumbles
Prologue to Parts III, IV, and V: Does history have a direction? Hegel, Smith, Darwin
Part III. Sensible Steps for Today's World: Powerful Measures we Can Implement Right Away: 10. Do it now: five points of leverage
11. Constructive moves on the international front for the next 25 years
12. Breaking the political logjam
13. Lessons from the green movement: how to build lasting change in the absence of full consensus
Part IV. The Middle-Term Goal: New International Tools for the Late 21st Century: 14. A promising track record: the dramatic growth of international institutions and networks since 1900
15. How to escape the sovereignty trap: lessons and limitations of the EU Model
16. Taking the UN up a notch: planet-level solutions for the year 2100
17. The other path to 2100: ruthless competition, fingers crossed
Part V. The Long-Term Goal: Envisioning a Mature System of Global Governance for the 22nd Century: 18. Global government in a world of democracies and dictatorships: what it might look like in 2150
19. Keeping the system accountable and fair
20. Collective military security and economic sanctions: how to handle rogues, cheaters, and fanatics
21. What could go wrong?
22. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Social impact of environmental issues [RNT], Pollution & threats to the environment [RNP], Environment law [LNKJ], International environmental law [LBBP], Environmental economics [KCN]