Jul 4, 09
A Bright Green Argument for Geoengineering
Jamais wrote an excellent opinion piece in the WSJ arguing for geoengineering research and experimentation. While I disagree with his conclusion and find geoengineering a poor strategy for getting us out the the troubles we're in, his piece is really worth reading. He manages to steer clear of offering political cover to denialists (who have been using the idea of geoengineering to deny the need for emissions reductions), yet make a really cogent, clear argument about what he thinks...
Earth 2100, Tonight
So a ways back I was interviewed pretty extensively by ABC in preparation for their special "television event" Earth 2100. It airs tonight: It's an idea that most of us would rather not face -- that within the next century, life as we know it could come to an end. Our civilization could crumble, leaving only traces of modern human existence behind. It seems outlandish, extreme -- even impossible. But according to cutting edge scientific research, it is a very real possibility. And unless we...
Scanning The Foothills Of The Future
By Jemima Jewell "A fantastic tool for people to lift their eyes from the daily doom and gloom, to the foothills of the future – where the view is breathtaking." That’s how our recent vision for the West Midlands region was described by Dr Simon Slater, who commissioned the project as Director of Sustainable Development at Advantage West Midlands. But what exactly is a vision, and why are we so keen on them here at Forum for the Future? A vision can take many shapes and forms, but...
"The Rocketship Wonder of Earlier Decades is Gone"
A great round-up of the talks at worldchanging ally and writer Geoff Manaugh's London conference, Thrilling Wonder Stories. Here are some interesting tidbits (all quotes are paraphrases): Peter Cook: "He stood up to talk about “Weird Shit International” as a much-needed movement in architecture across the decades. ... He lamented “up and down” building design philosophy, and laughed that the Oslo school of architecture was pumping out such boring graduates of that philosophy, when a...
The Worldchanging Star Trek Challenge
Classic space operas ignore the difficult realities of space travel, assuming that all the potential kinks have been worked out through and that future societies have developed new "black box" technologies (as in wormholes and their navigation, warp speed leaps through space, handheld devices that translate alien languages and diagnose obscure ailments on the fly, transporters that disassemble human bodies and reassemble them many miles away). Suspension of disbelief is willing but often...
Where There Is No Vision, The People Perish 2
In this sequel to Part 1, Bill Becker lays out some key goals and principles for a sustainable future. We are on the edge of a carbon revolution. Everything is going to change. This will matter to you… There is no high-carbon future. -Peter Mandelson, Secretary of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Great Britain When we give voice to our visions, we identify the destinations we want to move towards. And by describing the steps we can take, we prepare ourselves for...
Plan To Produce Clean Power And Water In Sahara Desert
By Chris Alden Solar power and seawater to produce energy, food and water in Sahara Desert Mention the words “Sahara Forest” to anyone over the age of 20, and they’ll soon recall the old joke about the woodcutter who says that’s where he learnt his trade. “Surely you mean the Sahara Desert?” his questioner replies. “Ah,” says the woodcutter, “That’s what they call it now.” These days the Sahara Forest Project is the ambitious name given to a British proposal which...
A Green Future Where You Can Borrow Cars And Drink Rainwater
By Alok Jha A low-carbon economy will be the culmination of thousands of decisions by governments, businesses and individuals about how we choose to balance environment and economy. There isn't one correct future but many, with each detail in each country dependent on the will of its people. One thing is certain, though. Anyone concerned about having to give up their modern lifestyle for an austere existence can rest easy. The big differences between now and the low-carbon future will not...
Collapse Forward
It's reasonable to worry about collapse these days. From resource peaks to food scarcity, financial meltdowns to climate change, the news seems uniformly ominous. We certainly could blow it badly enough to trigger irrecoverable collapse (for instance, by triggering climate tipping points), but I'm dubious that most of the collapses we fear will in fact occur, or, even if they occur, that they will last as long or be quite as catastrophic as we think. That doesn't mean that big shake-ups...
Fifth Scenario Thinking
Heard this nice buzzphrase: "fifth scenario planning." In much conventional scenario planning, two essential questions are turned into axes on a graph, creating four sectors, each of which becomes a world or scenario. By finding strategies which perform well in each of these worlds and comparing them, planners can find the set of strategies which are most robust in all of the worlds, and thus, hopefully, most vigorous in real life. The idea of fifth scenario planning is to anticipate a...
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