25 Things You Need to Know About the Future
Explaining the challenges and technologies that will shape the next few decades.
Part I: The End of the Age of Plenty
Part I of 25 Things You Need to Know About the Future focuses on the Earth and its resources. In doing so it highlights the great challenges that lie ahead as our civilization continues to expand in the face of diminishing supplies. Some people may see this as a cause for great concern. However, for future gazers as future shapers, the end of the age Age of Plenty is a call to arms that will drive radical innovation . . .
Chapter 1: Peak Oil
Peak Oil refers to the point in time when global oil production reaches its maximum, and after which demand for oil will slowly start to outstrip supply. Many informed estimates suggest that Peak Oil will be with us by 2020. The online references used in compiling this chapter comprised:
Chapter 2: Climate Change
Most people and pretty much all governments now accept that raised greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are causing the Earth to warm up due to an increased retention of heat from the Sun. We will therefore all be affected by the response of governments and organizations to climate change, in addition to the physical implications of climate change itself. The online references used in compiling this chapter comprised:
Chapter 3: Peak Water
Over the next couple of decades many nations will hit a situation of Peak Water where demand for fresh water starts to outstrip supply. In turn this will have serious implications for food production, human health and the wider environment. The online references used in compiling this chapter comprised:
Chapter 4: Food Shortages
The near-future "perfect storm" of Peak Oil, Peak Water and climate change -- not to mention rising population levels and the rampant planetary cancer of global industrialization -- will within a few decades lead to serious food shortages unless drastic action is taken. The online references used in compiling this chapter comprised:
Chapter 5: Resource Depletion
Continual economic growth and constant population expansion is impossible within an effectively closed system like Planet Earth. Over the coming decades biting resource depletion is therefore likely to become a reality unless we change our ways. The online references used in compiling this chapter comprised:
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