Paul Ehrlich, for instance, predicted in the 1970s that population growth would outstrip humanity's ability to feed itself, leading to widespread famines before the 1990s. Bailey's views are rather one-sided, but given that they come from a side that gets very little press or attention, they make interesting reading. For instance, he wrote an article for Newsweek magazine in 1993, outlining U.S. government findings that the air was cleaner in the United States in 1993 than it was in 1982. Read this book if you want a more balanced view of the world, and our place in it. Chaos theory is a relatively new branch of mathematics that has far-ranging implications for everyday life.
Chaotic systems tend to be very simple in concept, but lead to enormous complexity.
Weather and climate are two chaotic systems, where a small change in one place can lead to a massive change elsewhere or elsewhen. The basic message is that not only are there things we do not know, there are things we cannot know. This popular best-seller is more than a decade old now, but still a wonderful introduction to a significant area of human knowledge. It is also a prerequisite for those who want to learn about complexity theory. This book reads like a thriller, but its story line is all too real.