2004 Massey Lectures series as broadcast on ABC radio The twentieth century was a time of runaway growth in human population, consumption and technology, all of which placed tremendous demands on earth, air and water-the very elements of life. The urgent question of the twenty-first century is how, or whether, this can continue. In A Short History of Progress, a runaway bestseller in his native Canada, Ronald Wright explains how our current predicament is as old as civilization. He brilliantly argues that only by understanding the patterns of progress and folly that humanity has repeated everywhere from ancient Rome to Easter Island can we learn to change our ways, and, with luck and wisdom, avoid a disastrous outcome.