MONDAY LUNCHEON
Monday, July 30, 2007
12:45-1:15 p.m.
The Great Ecological Restoration Begins
Jared Diamond is wrong. Human civilization and the world’s ecosystems will not collapse in this century. This presentation looks at the emerging positive ecological trends that will dominate the next hundred years. It features scientific and economic analyses showing how humanity will increasingly withdraw its productive activities from wild nature enabling ecosystems to heal themselves and to thrive. Trends that will be highlighted include: human population growth, urbanization, dematerialization, agricultural and energy efficiency, forest growth, global temperature, and overall economic growth. More than 80% of the world’s wealth is intangible and that percentage will increase throughout the 21st century.
Attendees will realize that global ecological trends are not nearly as dire as they are often portrayed. Of course, there are still major ecological problems—declining fisheries, shrinking tropical forests, growing scarcity of fresh water—but these problems are transitory. Come learn what policies and institutions are necessary to hasten the Great Restoration!
Ronald Bailey, science correspondent, Reason magazine; author, Liberation Biology: The Scientific and Moral Case for the Biotech Revolution, Charlottesville, Virginia
key words: ecology, environment, civilization
TUESDAY LUNCHEON
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
12:45-1:15 p.m.
The Knowledge Economy: Peace and Prosperity through Productivity
Our economy divides into three parts: the transformational economy, which includes producing finished goods from raw materials; the transactional economy, where human beings do routine or machine-like work; and the knowledge economy. In principle, there is no ceiling on the productivity of knowledge workers. Knowledge is abundant, not scarce, and doubles every five years. It is virtually free of pollution, it shows increasing returns to scale, it is accessible, and it pays its practitioners well. It does not respond to the theorems of the productivity economy, which is ruled by scarcity. Rather, it carries its own laws which will transform the future of nations, and the world.
Tor Dahl, founder, president, and CEO, Tor Dahl & Associates; economist, consultant, and adjunct associate professor in public health, University of Minnesota; chairman emeritus, World Confederation of Productivity Science, White Bear Lake, Minnesota. He served as the Governor’s Representative on the Minnesota Coalition on Health Care Costs, and on the blue ribbon task force on State Health Priorities.
key words: knowledge economy, productivity
(Register for one or both lunches!)