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Waste Into Energy

We live in times of multifaceted global challenges, such as financial crisis, unemployment, and an uncertain geopolitical climate. Any technology that will reduce waste and create net energy is most welcome at all levels of our society. This speaker discusses current technologies of waste conversion, and their limitations and drawbacks, and presents this new visionary technology going beyond just science. The speaker compares and contrasts existing technologies with implications to environment and greening of the planet, energy independence, and job creation at all levels.

Who should attend: Corporate executives, opinion makers, government officials at all levels, business leaders, strategic planners, and university professors, as well as anyone interested in the future of our planet.
What you’ll learn: Participants will attain some scientific foundation and critical tools to look further into the momentum towards the green energy. The methods learned here will help participants evaluate technologies affecting future energy solutions and help leaders make more-informed decisions in the future.
How this new knowledge can be applied: Leaders at all levels can use this information to look critically at converting waste into fuel. This energy conversion will produce enough hydrocarbon fuel material for a city or a county, and will be the first step toward energy independence. 

Shashi Parulekar, managing partner, GH Technology, Troy, Michigan

key words: reduce plastic waste, energy,  fuel materials
issue area: Resources and Environment, Business and Careers 

Energy Wildcards and Their Impact on Society

This will be a quick overview of selected energy wildcards such as fusion, low energy nuclear reactions, space solar power, vacuum energy, and others. We will consider the timeframe, source of the breakthrough, and applications of the technology. Some energy wildcards can provide large scale electric utility power, but others may be better suited for transportation use or even laptop computer battery replacements. Then we will discuss the level of acceptance by society, changes in financing and operation, environmental impact, and how we might think about energy in new ways. Would conservation still be a priority if energy is clean, cheap, and sustainable? Some of these energy sources have the potential to make major changes in global politics and even affect the stability of some parts of the world. If non-fossil fuel energy sources are available for use in cars and trucks, oil producing areas of the world quickly lose their political and economic power.

Who should attend: Anyone interested in wildcards and how they will impact society.
What you’ll learn: New ways to think about energy and the environment and how energy wildcards could change society.
How this new knowledge can be applied: Be prepared to think about and use energy differently if one of several energy wildcards is successful.

Francis Stabler, principal of Future Tech LLC, formerly with General Motors, Troy, Michigan

key words: energy, environment, society
issue areas: Resources and Environment, Technology and Science, Social and Cultural Trends

Special Event Climate Change Adaptation and Futures in European Coastal Areas The presentation focuses on one of the great challenges of twenty-first-century society: adapting to a changing climate. Although mitigation of climate change remains crucial, there is an increasing acceptance that a parallel process of adaptation needs to be facilitated. The first part of the presentation will focus on key concepts and issues in using futures in climate change adaptation, especially addressing uncertainty, risk, mobilization of resources and actors, and decision-making processes. The second part of the presentation relates the application of an approach (IMCORE Project) to use futures in climate change adaptation policies in northwestern Europe. A key objective of the project has been to identify possible impacts of a range of specified climate change scenarios on coastal sectors and the development of a response in the form of strategies for adaptive management. Who should attend: Policy makers, academics, and professionals interested in climate change adaptation. What you’ll learn: Participants will acquire knowledge and case study material of how futures approaches are being used in Europe to facilitate the shift toward new climates and their ramifications for policies, businesses, and communities. How this new knowledge can be applied: This knowledge can be applied across different international contexts, in different localities. In addition to the specific focus on climate change adaptation, this knowledge can be applied to other transformative socio-economic processes. Martin Rhisiart, director, Center for Research in Futures and Innovation, University of Glamorgan, Business School, Pontypridd, Wales, United Kingdom key words: environment, climate, adaptation, scenarios issue areas: Resources and Environment, Technology and Science, Futures Methodologies

Session Canceled -- New Zealand: New Thinking?

The future of society requires new forms of science and technology to productively accommodate the intrinsic value-laden judgments needed to manage the high uncertainties and considerable long-term impacts of sustainable urban planning. Responses to these wicked problems include the development of post-normal science in the early 1990s. In subsequent literature on post-normal sustainability technologies, multi-actor approaches to decision making are beginning to emerge.

Who should attend: Researchers, scientists, policy makers, educators, futurists.
What you’ll learn: Participants will learn about (1) developments in futuring in New Zealand; (2) innovative techniques to engage policy makers in futures thinking; and (3) ways in which science must develop post-normal sustainability technologies, which need to be fully understood and implemented in order to address critical resource issues (climate change, peak oil, food supply).
How this new knowledge can be applied: We have developed, implemented, and reviewed a series of futuring technologies over the last six years that are grounded in new theories of ho

w science can support society's struggle to attain a sustainable state. The presentation will explore a range of techniques developed and implemented successfully in New Zealand over the last six years.

Bob Frame, principal scientist in sustainability and society, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, Lincoln, New Zealand

key words: sustainability, communication, governance, education
issue areas: Resources and Environment, Governance and Communities, Technology and Science

Special Event Sustainability and Climate Change There is currently a great deal of ill-informed panic about climate change, leading to many poorly thought-through and counterproductive actions and policies that are actually damaging the environment. It is possible to solve the problems ahead by developing appropriate technologies and deploying them when they are ready, rather than wasting resources on poor solutions that will not achieve the goals but will certainly cause an unnecessary drop in living standards worldwide. The far future could see our environment in much better shape than today if only we can use our resources more wisely. The greatest danger the environment faces is the panic application of wrong policies based on emotional reactions and political expediency. This session will explore some of the alternatives and ask whether it is more important to safeguard the environment and the future humanity or to indulge the emotions of the greens. Who should attend: Anyone interested in technology-based solutions to climate change and ensuring future sustainability without compromising living standards. What you’ll learn: Future technologies relevant to climate change and sustainability, new approaches that are based on progression rather than regression. How this new knowledge can be applied: Guidance on timescales over which we should act and prioritization of actions.  Ian Pearson, independent futurologist, Futurizon; formerly futurologist, British Telecommunications, Ipswich, United Kingdom. key words:  environment, energy, transport, solar issue areas: Resources and Environment, Technology and Science, Values and Spirituality

Energizing the Global Economy

According to The World Energy Outlook 2008 Report, which included new studies and forecasts from the International Energy Agency (IEA), global energy demand will increase by at least 45% between now and 2030. The demand for oil alone will equal six times the current capacity of Saudi Arabia, even as world oil production peaks. Periodic recessions will have little impact on the world’s thirst for energy. McGraw-Hill’s energy research arm Platts has plainly stated that without a growing energy supply countries face declining growth rates, diminished standards of living, and growing transfer of wealth from importing to exporting countries.

We will explore the multi-pronged approach countries are taking to meet energy demand, which includes the development of coal, oil, nuclear power, renewables, and a host of breakthrough technologies, including nuclear fusion. Countries such as China, India, and Russia are planning to construct more than 50 nuclear plants by 2020. China, Germany, and the Netherlands are busily constructing clean coal power plants that will use carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, which traps carbon-dioxide emissions and pipes them underground, not into the atmosphere.

In spite of such efforts, world energy demand will eventually have to be met by a new generation of energy technologies and devices currently untapped. While the potential of nuclear fusion, the power of the sun, to meet our energy needs is literally unlimited, progress on developing a commercially viable reactor has been surprisingly slow.

Who should attend: Members of the business and community, educators, government policy planners, futurists, academics, social scientists, and anyone interested in the global future and specifically energy issues.
What you’ll learn: This presentation will help you gain a broader understanding of the global energy situation, and the impact of energy on the economy. You will also be exposed to information on some breakthrough innovations that could soon become major forces in the global energy future.
How this new knowledge can be applied: Since energy impacts every aspect of personal and professional life, anyone in government, industry, and education could benefit from this session. In addition, attendees can apply this information to their careers and their personal lives.

Michael G. Zey, professor, Montclair State University, Morristown, New Jersey.

key words:  energy, nuclear power, oil, economy
issue areas: Resources and Environment, Technology and Science, Business and Careers

The Post-Scarcity World: 2050–2075

The remainder of the first half of this century is likely to be punctuated by scarcity. Peak oil, water shortages, food crises, and resource depletion, to  name a few. Much of this will be driven by the increase in global population from about 6 billion in 2000 to about 9 billion in 2050. However, one feature of the human condition is its ability to make do with conditions as they arise. As the pressure on resources slacken in the second half of the century, what kind of world will emerge? It is this question that this session will address.

Who should attend: Those who have an interest in looking beyond our immediate concerns to consider what might lie ahead in the later part of this century.
What you’ll learn: How the planet will cope with the scarcities and what kind of geo-politics, companies, and cities might emerge.
How this new knowledge can be applied:  The session will create awareness that there is a future beyond our present difficulties and show how we can currently prepare to enjoy that future.

Stephen Aguilar-Millan, director of research, European Futures Observatory, Ipswich, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Ann Feeney, research manager, YMCA of the USA; member, Association of Professional Futurists, Chicago, Illinois
Amy Oberg, managing partner, Future-In-Sight, LLC, Appleton, Wisconsin
Elizabeth Rudd, director, FutureNous, Melbourne, Australia

key words:  scarcity, economy, geo-politics
issue areas: Resources and Environment, Business and Careers, Social and Cultural Trends

Innovation, Creativity, and Individual Responsibility: Promoting Sustainability

Sustainable living does not require difficult processes and transformation of scientific, economic, and cultural systems. Blending science, law, human nature, spiritual values, and holistic health, four brothers integrate an eclectic mix of viewpoints aimed at stimulating debate and achieving actual results by sharing individual responsibility for our global future.

Similarly, managing human impacts on earth without economic and technological support is impossible with a growing population. By protecting our natural world, we improve individual decision making and economic profitability: pollution prevention pays. Enhanced individual responsibility in turn protects our natural world.

Who should attend: Action-oriented professionals and anyone who is seeking answers to: (1) why clean energy is an economic imperative for free societies, (2) what keeps humans from behaving sustainably, and (3) what individuals can do to promote their own, as well as global, sustainable health.
What you’ll learn: Every element of society, including business, culture, individual health attitudes, and biological awareness, can positively impact our planet. Individuals must take the responsibility and act.
How this new knowledge can be applied: Individuals will more likely commit to behave in rational and sustainable ways when they understand that their own actions or inactions directly influence our planet. They would each then honor checks and balances on environmental and individual impacts. Each individual is responsible for demanding and facilitating these innovations.

Brian H. Davis, president, Environmental Advantage Law, LLPC, St. Paul, Minnesota
Earon S. Davis, attorney and policy analyst; human sustainability advocate, Divine Primates, Evanston, Illinois
Geary M. Davis, co-founder, Lotus of the Moon Acupuncture, Arlington Heights, Illinois
Wayne S. Davis, senior environmental scientist, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Ft. Meade, Maryland

key words:  environment, sustainability, health, business, culture, responsibility, empowerment
issue areas: Resources and Environment, Values and Spirituality, Social and Cultural Trends

A Changing Maritime Arctic: Sorting Out the Complexities with Scenarios

The Arctic and, more specifically, the maritime Arctic, are undergoing extraordinary changes.  Regional climate change is observed in the rapid loss in Arctic sea ice, which opens more of the Arctic Ocean to marine access and potentially longer seasons of navigation for the global maritime industry. The Arctic is also a large storehouse of natural resources, such as oil, gas, nickel, zinc, palladium, copper, and iron ore, whose relative global scarcity and high prices now make extraction and development highly competitive. The global marine tourism has also “discovered” the Arctic, and larger numbers of passengers and tourists are venturing to the Arctic Ocean in search of new vistas and adventures. The challenges for the Arctic to enhance marine safety and environmental protection for this region are formidable. Protecting Arctic peoples and the environment will require much greater regional cooperation than anytime in history, as well as broad engagement with a host of actors in the global maritime industry at all international and regional levels. Scenarios and scenario-thinking have been used to sort out and identify the key drivers and uncertainties of these significant changes to the maritime Arctic. These scenarios have assisted in developing future directions that Arctic states and non-Arctic stakeholders can pursue to build effective and appropriate governance of the maritime industry in the Arctic Ocean.

Who should attend: Anyone interested in the interplay among globalization, climate change, governance, resource development, indigenous communities, and more; those interested in international affairs/relations regarding how the Arctic Council and Arctic states are dealing with great change in marine use at the top of the world; those interested in the changing oceans and marine regions of the planet.
What you’ll learn: Application of scenarios creation to a region of the globe; determining the fundamental drivers of change for a geographic region; how climate change, resource development and governance are interacting in the maritime Arctic in complex ways influencing a global industry.
How this new knowledge can be applied: Use of scenarios applied to a complex topic to assist in sorting out key uncertainties; understanding how a remote region of the world is in fact linked to the entire planet in many unforeseen ways (natural resources, tourism, trade and more).

Lawson Brigham, professor, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska

key words:  environment, climate change, global economics, development
issue areas: Resources and Environment, Governance and Communities, Futures Methodologies

 Growing Water in the City of the Future

The United Nations predicts that two out of every three people in the world will be facing water shortages by 2025, a situation that will inevitably lead to global conflict. And while the United States is by and large considered to have adequate water resources, water scarcity and droughts occur regularly throughout the country. Water shortages are even routinely reported in cities directly adjacent to the Great Lakes, which hold 20% of the Earth’s freshwater and 95% of the freshwater in the U.S. The findings of the Growing Water project a visionary plan for the city of Chicago to reclaim its water resources by recycling or growing its own water to address the global water scarcity and pollution dilemmas will be explored.

Who should attend: Urbanists, architects, designers, and environmentalists.
What you’ll learn: Attendees will learn about the future of the relationship between cities and their natural resources.
How this new knowledge can be applied: Individuals will gain an understanding of the risks and rewards associated with 21st century cities and how the environmental challenges they face can be addressed through green infrastructure and urban planning.

Martin Felsen, program director, Archeworks; principal and founder, UrbanLab,Chicago, Illinois
Sarah Dunn, research director, Archeworks; assistant professor, School of Architecture, University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois

key words:  resourceful architecture, sustainable urbanism, climate change, green infrastructure
issue areas: Resources and Environment, Governance and Communities

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
World Future Society Headquarters
7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 450
Bethesda, Maryland 20814
Web site: www.wfs.org.
Telephone: 800-989-8274 or 301-656-8274; fax: 301-951-0394