Sun and Darkness

The Future Isn’t What it Used to Be! (It’s Going to be Better)

“The future continues to get better for most of the world, but a series of tipping points could drastically alter global prospects.”

2008 UN State of the Future Report

We’ve seen the future … and we may not be doomed. So says the UN 2008 State of the Future Report that finds life is getting better for people worldwide, but that governments are failing to respond to critical time-sensitive opportunities.

Renewable Energy – Biomass including wood, MSW, and biofuels, carbon …
Biomass … Biomass contains stored energy from the sun. … Biomass is a renewable energy source because we can always grow more trees and …

“This is a unique time in history. Mobile phones, the internet, international trade, language translation and jet planes are giving birth to an interdependent humanity that can create and implement global strategies to improve its prospects,” reports 2008 State of the Future. “It is increasingly clear that the world has the resources to address our common challenges. Ours is the first generation with the means for many to know the world as a whole, identify global improvement systems, and seek to improve them.”

Humanity stands on the threshold of a peaceful and prosperous future, with an unprecedented ability to extend lifespans and increase the power of ordinary people ? but these achievements may be overshadowed through inequality, violence and environmental degradation.

This massive new international report, due to be published late this month, and obtained and reported by The Independent was funded by organizations ranging from Unesco to the US army, the World Bank, and the Rockefeller Foundation, drawing on contributions from 2,500 experts around the world.

The Energy Story – Chapter 10: Biomass Energy
The Energy Story is a general introduction to energy. … Biomass – the growing energy resource – Australian Academy of Science (www. …

The report, produced by the Millennium Project of the World Federation of the United Nations Associations, many important things are already getting better: life expectancy and literacy rates are increasing worldwide, while infant mortality and the number of armed conflicts have been falling fast. Per capita income has been growing strongly enough to cut poverty by more than half by 2015 ? except, importantly, in Africa.

Even better, it says, “advances in science, technology, education, economics and management seem capable of making the world work far better than it does today”.

Medical breakthroughs are offering the hope of defeating inherited diseases, tailoring cures to individual patients, and even creating replacement body parts. Information technology and pcs are spreading even to remote villages in developing countries and dramatically increasing in power to provide “collective intelligence for just-in-time knowledge to inform decisions.”It will be 25 years until a computer’s capacity equals the power of the human brain. After another 25 years, everyone will be able to access processing power greater than that of all the brains on Earth combined.

The internet, the report observes is “already the most powerful force for globalization, democratization, economic growth and education in history.

“The internet allows self-organization around common ideals, independent of conventional institutional controls and regardless of nationalities or languages. Injustices in acheter cialis different parts of the world become the concern of thousands or millions of people who then pressure local, regional or international governing systems to find solutions.

“This unparalleled social power is reinventing citizens’ roles in the political process and changing institutions, policy-making and governance.”

And this is happening in a world that is already becoming freer and more democratic. Over the past 30 years, the number of free countries has more than doubled from 43 to 90, it reports, while those that are partly free increased from 46 to 60. Just over one-third of humanity still lives in the 43 countries with authoritarian regimes, but half of these people are in China.

EERE: Biomass Program Home Page
… to facilitate expanded use of biomass resources for the production of … Currently, biomass is the only clean, renewable energy source that can help to …

Home run

On the other hand, the report warns “half the world is vulnerable to social instability and violence due to rising food and energy prices, failing states, falling water tables, climate change, decreasing water-food-energy supply per person, desertification and increasing migrations due to political, environmental and economic conditions”. Other threats such as increasing terrorism, corruption and organized crime ? remain undimished.

Food prices have more than doubled in a year and have already plunged 37 countries into crisis, greatly increasing hunger and poverty. And price rises seem set to continue because food production needs to increase 50 per cent by 2013 and double in 30 years.

“With nearly three billion people making $2 or less per day, long-term global social conflict seems inevitable without more serious food policies, useful scientific breakthroughs and dietary change …

Related posts: Caribbean satellite, Charles fuller, Hulk preview, Baby names 2008, American pie soundtrack