Here’s how the Independent sums up the UN’s State of the Future report, due to be published late this month, and which is “[b]acked by organisations ranging from Unesco to the US army, the World Bank to the Rockefeller Foundation”:

“Humanity stands on the threshold of a peaceful and prosperous future, with an unprecedented ability to extend lifespans and increase the power of ordinary people – but is likely to blow it through inequality, violence and environmental degradation. And governments are not equipped to ensure that the opportunities are seized and disasters averted. ...

““The future continues to get better for most of the world,” it concludes, “but a series of tipping points could drastically alter global prospects.” ...

“But the report’s authors say that governments are not up to the job: “Many of the world’s decision-making processes are inefficient, slow and ill-informed, especially when given the new demands from increasing complexity [and] globalisation.” They call on world leaders to do more long-term planning, and to join in global approaches to the interlocking crises. “Climate change cannot be turned around without a global strategy. International organised crime cannot be stopped without a global strategy. Individuals creating designer diseases and causing massive deaths cannot be stopped without a global strategy. It is time for global strategic systems to be upgraded.””

If this report details half of what the Independent says it does, the outlook is very grim, on issues from availability of food and water to nuclear proliferation, terrorism, climate change, war and poverty (indeed the paper’s choice of headline for the story is rather baffling in this respect). And yet, this comes at a time when we have the capacity to implement the kind of changes necessary to bring about a far more just and decent form of life for humanity. Unfortunately, this is very far from being assured, or even likely: all that is required to produce the conditions for a genuine global catastrophe is that we continue on our present course.