# Executive Summary

The world we live in – What will it be like? Where is it headed?

The earth formed some 4.6 billion years ago. It is said that life arose 600 million to 800 million years after the earth formed. After that, during the long eons in which even continents changed form, living organisms continued working to stay alive while adjusting their own bodies and their capabilities to their environment. When water, rock, stone, and sun combined to make various environments, countless species emerged. Diverse, exquisite ecosystems were woven together between inorganic matter and living organisms, or among living organisms. Each time the earth has faced a period of mass extinction; some individual organisms tolerated the conditions and escaped, remaining alive. Over a great length of time, the planet has continued to overflow with a truly enormous amount of life.

Humans emerged on this planet only very recently as seen on a time scale of the history of life. The hominids who domesticated fire some million years ago subsequently adapted themselves to many major environmental shifts, climactic changes foremost among them, surviving each crisis. As time passed, civilizations rose, some prospering and some perishing, and we are the beneficiaries of the ongoing civilization that has been handed down to modern times.

As remarkably skillful uses of fire arose from the industrial revolution, human society faced a new era. Modern civilization, while conferring various real conveniences on humankind, does not obey natural law — to be described below — and for this reason, humankind has continued to place a massive burden on the environment. There has been almost no international recognition of that fact until quite recently.

Humanity now stands at great crossroads.

We can directly experience the fact that today even our daily lives are impacted by global environmental changes and international economic trends. Skeptical voices begin to be heard, raising the question of whether the patterns of socioeconomic development that prevailed until now can continue to bring forth human well-being in the future.

As we damage the environment upon which human socioeconomic activities depend, the circumstances now compel us to raise awareness of the depleting resources and energy that have been used lavishly, more in some countries than in others. This problem cannot be resolved by seeking to open up new geographic frontiers as was practiced in the past. Humans, whose activities now span to the ends of the earth, are now on track to use up the underground mineral resources that make up life's foundations within a few decades. In the future, beyond thoroughly rationalizing resource and energy use, humankind must transit the basis of all our activity to use resources and forms of energy with smaller adverse impacts on the environment and for which there are no concerns about depletion.

Additionally, the global recession has revealed misgivings, sometimes ethical, about an economic system and its attendant structures that have sometimes conferred benefits distantly removed from the real economy, alongside the damage it has caused in individuals' ability to make a living. Conversely, the recession has also unmistakably broadened the flow of financing to environmentally-concerned projects and SRIs (Socially Responsible Investment).

The so-called Green Growth movement has gained international visibility as it utilizes environmental policy measures to drive economic recovery, leading to an end to the recession and subsequent sustainable development.

Furthermore, Europe, for example, at dubious point of view about the GDP measures that disaster recovery expenditures are counted as growth even beset by enormous damage from floods, heat waves, and other abnormal climate impacts, is calling for a new development framework that measures the importance of human happiness over and above GDP.

As we stand in our present era, this year’s White Paper perspective is based on a worldwide view, using data on several socioeconomic trends closely linked to environmental problems, and encompasses the question of the world's direction, from the conditions of population shifts and poverty and socioeconomic disparities.

As we face an era of this nature, this year's White Paper encompasses the question of where the world is headed, from population trends through poverty and socioeconomic disparities. Its perspective is worldwide and is grounded in data that describe several socioeconomic movements deeply related to environmental problems. The data reveal that population increases and economic growth have driven corresponding increases in resource consumption and the environmental burden. Trends in water, food, energy, waste, and so forth, are showing no improvement. When international socioeconomic tendencies and resource limits are considered, it appears extremely unlikely that the currently prevalent socioeconomic structures based on mass production, mass consumption, and mass waste can be continued into the future. There is a concern that resource depletion and uneven distribution will become major international problems as countries concern themselves with securing their own national interests.

In the context of international efforts to handle environmental problems, developing countries now tend to emphasize the “different” in the phrase “common problem but with different responsibilities.” Instead,