Lord Martin Rees and Prof Sir Charles Godfray in conversation: “Thinking again about the future and prospects for humanity”

29 January 2021

Portrait of Professor Sir Charles Godfray

with Professor Sir Charles Godfray
Director, Oxford Martin School

Professor Charles Godfray was appointed Director of the Oxford Martin School on 1 February 2018. He is a population biologist with broad interests in the environmental sciences and has published in fundamental and applied areas of ecology, evolution...

In his 2018 book, On the Future, Martin Rees argued that humanity has reached a critical moment.

Our world is unsettled and rapidly changing, and we face existential risks over the next century. Various outcomes - good and bad - are possible. Yet our approach to the future is characterised by short-term thinking, polarising debates, alarmist rhetoric, and pessimism. Achieving the best prospects for humanity will depend on our taking a very different approach to planning for tomorrow than we do at present.

In conversation with Charles Godfray, Martin Rees will explore how the global experience of the COVID-19 pandemic might change the way societies and policymakers grapple with the major challenges of the 21st century.