In 2012 Stephen Emmott, then head of computational science at Microsoft and a professor of computational science at Oxford University, was persuaded to stage a one-man show at London’s Royal Court Theatre by theatre director Katie Mitchell, who wanted to encourage collaboration between scientists and the arts. It was called Ten Billion, and the Guardian and Financial Times reviewers both described it as “one of the most disturbing” productions they had ever seen.
Standing in a re-creation of his cluttered laboratory, Emmott described the “unprecedented planetary emergency” that humankind faces as the global population – a mere three billion in 1960 – soars rapidly towards ten billion, plundering the planet’s resources, devastating the environment, spewing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and triggering the sixth mass extinction of life on Earth as we pursue ever more voracious lifestyles.
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