One of the pitfalls of globalization is the greater range for damaging stupidity which might formerly have been more easily corralled at a local level.

This blunt prognosis is from a thoughtful piece by one of the world’s preeminent astrophysicists, the Astronomer Royal and founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risks.

See also his summary conclusion of our devastating impact on biodiversity, and his rebuke concerning our lack of a long-term view, where we are put to shame by medieval cathedral builders.

‘The global village will have its village idiots and they’ll have global range.’ 

Source: Martin Rees, ‘The world in 2050’, New Statesman, 5 December 2014, p. 27

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