The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Civilization's Northern Future

“A compelling portrait of the future and vividly relates the big challenges facing the world now.”—Jared Diamond, New York Times bestselling author of Collapse and Guns, Germs, and Steel

The world's population is exploding, wild species are vanishing, and our environment is degrading. What kind of world are we leaving for our children and grandchildren? Just who will flourish—and who will fail—in our evolving world?

Combining the lessons of geography and history with state-of-the-art model projections and analytical data, Guggenheim fellow Laurence C. Smith predicts how the eight nations of the Arctic Rim (including the United States) will become increasingly powerful while the nations around the equator struggle for survival. Like Bjorn Lomborg's The Skeptical Environmentalist, The World in 2050 is as credible as it is controversial, projecting the looming benefits as well as the problems of climate change.

Laurence C. Smith earned his PhD at Cornell University, and is now professor and vice-chairman of geography and earth space sciences at the University of California in Los Angeles where he also lives.