2nd March 2020

M&G: Is the “Greta effect” going to last?

A question I have often been asked lately is “is the Greta effect going to last?”. How much influence is this public figure going to have and are the social movements she inspired really going to transform our society? The honest answer is I don’t know, but human psychology in the time of social media would suggest that something else will soon capture public attention and imagination… 

However, what is not going away are the facts underpinning today’s society and the role they play in shaping the economic framework we operate in. 

For the last 150 years we have experienced significant socio-economic trends that brought great improvements to our wellbeing and life expectancy and that lifted millions of people out of poverty. The world population increased from 3 to today’s 7.8 billion people, world GDP grew from 1 to 85 trillion dollars. Urban population also increased exponentially and so did transportation, telecommunication and international tourism. The industrialisation process, together with globalisation and technological innovation all contributed to shape this period of “Great acceleration”.

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