A century later, the APU freshman class of 2000 faces a radically different world-and missionary challenge. The Industrial Revolution has given way to the Information Age. Biotechnology is leading to a world in which plants, animals, and human beings are going to be partly made with human hands. Transnational corporations ply a borderless world and increasingly control a global commercial culture that is accelerating the breakdown of the planet's life support systems and widening the gap between the rich and the poor. More than 100 million people worldwide are on the move, from south to north and east to west.
Affluent migrants follow the flows of international capital and modern education.
Both types are transforming the racial and religious complexion of cities as diverse as Amsterdam and Ankara, London and Los Angeles. Under the driving force of urban growth, local ecologies grapple with perilous levels of overcrowding, air and water pollution, and toxic waste. Diverse groups sharing a common geography compete for enough land, water, work, and recognition to sustain their lives. Increasingly, the tragic end of this struggle for survival is civil unrest and war, even genocide. Each of these global realities was virtually nonexistent in kind or degree 10 decades ago.