Looking at news coverage attention, it has been amazing to see how the essential problems of climate change, land use and agriculture were subordinated to those of the current issues of the economy.

You do not need to go to Davos to find out why.  Try Manchester for instance.  The cab driver who took me to my destination there during the first day of the Davos Annual Meeting told me he had been waiting three hours for the £20 tour, and that he now was living on borrowed funds.  And this is even before austerity measures are sinking into the economy.

The taxi driver was born in 1960, the same year as I was.  I told him we were three billion in 1960, we passed six billion in 1999 – and in 2045 we should reach nine billion, according to National Geographic. (They are a few years ahead of WEF estimates.)  For us this means that we will – if we are lucky to live until we are 85 – be living through a tripling of the world population in our lifetime.  Most likely this is the only time in the history of mankind that this will happen.

The taxi driver was not at all excited about this fact.  “I’m not sure if I want to live until I’m 85,” he said.  Like the news media, he’s more focused on the now – and you cannot blame him.

The lesson for world leaders and influencers is simple: keep your dialogue focused on the issues of today and act accordingly.  In other words, we do not need to wait for the nine billion.