Unity - Our way out of extinction.: An overview.

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An email message from Ron Garan, Nasa Astronaut, author of "the orbital perspective" and crusader for world unity to whom this book is dedicated: "Good luck with your book and it's important message." The message of this book is: In competition we all lose, in unity we go forward. The ruthless competition and expansionism of the current socioeconomic order is in the way of progress in solving our planet-sized problems and achieving our full potential as a species. Endless war, the new nuclear arms race, environmental destruction, climate instability, and rampant, unjust inequality exist because progressive thinking leading to a sustainable, humanist, and peaceful society and economy is being held back by vested interests everywhere. It is time in human history to mature to the next stage of civilization – a unified world with truly human goals and aspirations. For inspiration we can take the building of the International Space Station, the UN Paris Climate Accord, the success of the United Nations Millennium Goals in reducing poverty and other successes achieved in cooperation. The book argues that more power in decision-making must be handed to compassionate bodies such as the UN and the International Atomic Energy Agency as they are working for the benefit of everyone, not the privileged interests of any individual, corporation or nation.
The book relies for impact on not only words but also graphics such as images of the planet from the Space Station, ground-breaking advances in clean energy tech and so on. There are graphs, photos and images from professional graphic artists. It is also interactive with hyperlinks to sites on the internet to give it a wider, more complete perspective.
Brief synopsis of the chapters:
1. Introduction – Statement of intent. – Introduces the theme in words and graphics.
2. The Gold Standard. – Sets a standard by which the ability of an economic world order can provide maximum fulfillment to the maximum number and live up to its international agreements to guarantee a sustainable future.
3. How many days to doomsday and how long have we got to fix it? – Lays out the serious nature and urgency of the problems facing the world and offers hope for solving them.
4. History in perspective. - Attempts to show the lessons we need to learn from the past. It is a history with a purpose – to show how we got to the present situation and how we can move on.
5. Today’s history or how to read between the headlines. – Shows that, except for differences in outer forms, current events are still following the same self-defeating pattern that has been in place since the beginning of written history and why it is leading to an end game for humanity and all other life on the planet.
6. The mental illness epidemic – an emotional perspective. – Shows that the current global pandemic of mental and emotional disease is caused by an economic and social system intuitively based on “Social Darwinism” – an insecure society of winners and losers.
7. Why life is getting harder when economies are growing. – a research-based analysis of the current global economy which makes the connection that the more progressive nations delivering the most fairness and social democracy also have the best track records for environmental sustainability and general happiness of their populations.
8. Unity and compassion – the solutions. – encourages people to organize and empower themselves and suggests guidelines for the transition to a sustainable, peaceful and humanist world.