At one point I was going to call the book Toblerone for 10 billion.

That was vetoed by my editor for some reason.

Charles C. Mann is a journalist who writes big books about the history of science.

His current interest is the modern environmental movement.

The modern environmental movement, which I would argue is the only successful ideology

to emerge from the 20th century.

By the middle of the 21st century, the global population is expected to reach 10 billion.

And the question is, are we going to be able to satisfy all their demands for food, water, energy?

Also, Toblerone.

Because in addition to food and water in the basics, they're going to want occasional treats.

And there's one more big concern.

How are we going to deal with climate change? Those are the big challenges.

The future of food, water, energy, and climate change. Big challenges indeed.

How will those challenges be met?

There have been two ways that have been suggested overarching ways to represent

if you like polls and a continuum, and they've been fighting with each other for decades.

That fight and those two worldviews are the subject of Charles Mann's latest book,

which he wound up calling the wizard and the prophet.

The prophet sounds the alarm and wants us all to cut back.

The wizard urges us to charge forward.

Confident, the technology will solve our problems.

Surely you've heard these prophets and wizards speaking to us,

...