JORGEN RANDERS was a fresh-faced PhD student in physics at MIT when he co-wrote The Limits to Growth, the short but seminal work for the Club of Rome on resource depletion, spawning the sustainability movement.

Now the Norwegian is 67 and needs to sit in a straight-backed chair. A condition Germans call ''the witch's kick'' delivers periodic shooting pains to his lower back. After a lifetime of worrying about the future, it's just the kind of sit-up-and-take-notice stab he wants his book, 2052, an update of The Limits to Growth, to administer to all of us who are leading a life of plenty.

Book delivers "a final kick in the arse" ... professor of climate strategy, Jorgen Randers. Credit:Luis Ascui

His verdict: this is as good as it gets for the upper middle-classes of the rich industrialised countries, who will lose many of their privileges towards 2052.

Today's poor peasant in rural China, on the other hand, has a much better ride ahead. China will be a success story because it ''makes rational decisions even in the situation where a minority disagree'', unlike democracies which get ''stuck''.