Not only is climate change moving faster than global efforts to stop it, but our capacities for dealing with such large problems of our own making seem to be diminishing.
With economic inequality, job insecurity and stagnating living standards creating a widespread sense of alienation and disempowerment, societies are fragmenting and political polarization is deepening.
The problem is not that humans are predominantly ignorant or evil. Most people abhor social discord, abject poverty and environmental destruction. But they find themselves trapped in systems that induce them to behave in destructive ways. For example, our socioeconomic system focuses primarily on individual economic success (narrowly defined) and rests on the assumption that what is good for the economy is good for society and the environment.