MAKING
DISASTERS LESS DISASTROUS
The
UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction has called on governments
and regional organizations around the world to invest in the means necessary
to reduce natural-disaster-related deaths by one-half by 2015.
Measures recommended for meeting these death-reduction goals, as well as
reducing economic losses, include:
* By
2010, earmark at least 10% of humanitarian and reconstruction funding to
disaster-risk-reduction programs.
* By
2011, evaluate schools and hospitals for structural soundness; by 2015, have
firm action plans for safer schools in disaster-prone countries.
* By
2015, use building and land-use codes to enforce disaster-risk-reduction
measures in all major cities in disaster-prone areas.
The
critical factor will be funding the necessary investments. "Put bluntly,
many countries must dedicate more funds from national budgets—or suffer the
consequences," according to John Holmes, UN under-secretary-general for
humanitarian affairs.
SOURCE:
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction
EARTH SCIENCE LITERACY
Climate change, resource depletion, and other trends in the earth's systems
will dramatically affect all our futures, so it is increasingly imperative
that citizens understand what's going on and what we can do about it. The
National Science Foundation's Division of Earth Sciences has thus launched a
new initiative to promote literacy in the geosciences.
"It's important that every citizen have knowledge of the fundamental
concepts of Earth science such that he or she may make informed and
responsible decisions about public issues—from climate change to energy,
from natural resources to earthquake hazards," says director Robert Detrick.
"The Earth Science Literacy Initiative is a very important effort to convey
this information about Earth science to the general public."
DETAILS:
Earth Science Literacy Initiative
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EXCITEMENT BUILDS FOR
WORLDFUTURE 2009!
LINK UP
NOW TO WORLDFUTURE 2009
Join
more than 800 of your fellow futurists this summer at WorldFuture 2009:
Innovation and Creativity in a Complex World, to be held July 17-19 at the
Hilton Chicago.
BOOK YOUR HOTEL ROOM NOW! The rates will go up on JUNE 25, so hurry!
NEW VIDEO OFFERS SNEAK PREVIEW! Get a glimpse of the speakers and events
you can look forward to
GEAR
UP! Visit the World Future Society's store at Café Press to order your
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www.cafepress.com/worldfuture.
READY, SET, TWITTER! WFS will be tweeting live from the conference. To
follow along on Twitter, go to
http://twitter.com/WorldFuture09 . If you're attending the conference
and want to tweet your own reports, use the #worldfuture09 tag.
PREORDER Conference Volume (available after July 20)
PREORDER Conference audio proceedings will be available approximately
two weeks after the conference. Preorder at the special preconference price
of $159:
MORE AT 2009 CONFERENCE HEADQUARTERS: Get details on tours, courses, the
Education Summit, free career counseling, confirmed speakers and sessions,
and more!
SAVE $50! REGISTER BY JUNE 30 |
RAPID VIRUS DETECTION
 It's easy enough to
avoid people who are obviously sick, but what if they've just been infected
and aren't showing symptoms yet? An infection could spread and endanger many
before anyone's been diagnosed.
A portable,
ultrasensitive virus detector could perceive a virus within just five
minutes, using samples of an individual's saliva, blood, or other body
fluid. The device, under development at the University of Twente in the
Netherlands, contains an array of receptors such as antibodies that will
bind to microorganisms in the sample, thus creating a detectable
interference pattern, like a fingerprint.
The ability to detect
viruses almost instantly in clinics or other places without access to
laboratories and trained personnel could be a boon to preventing future
epidemics. The device can also detect bacteria, proteins, and DNA molecules.
The university's spin-off company, Ostendum, plans to introduce the first
detector to market in late 2010.
SOURCE:
University of Twente
CLICK OF THE MONTH:
ENGINEER YOUR LIFE
www.engineeryourlife.org/
"Imagine what life
would be like without pollution controls to preserve the environment,
life-saving medical equipment, or low-cost building materials for fighting
global poverty. All this takes engineering," states the National Academy of
Engineering's Web site for high-school girls and the adults in their lives.
Engineering is
vital to problem solving and, as a career, offers an opportunity to make a
real difference in the world. Using stories of real women and student peers
engaging in these activities, the program encourages more young women to
enter the field in all its varieties, such as civil, aeronautic, biomedical,
environmental, industrial, and computer engineering.
Resources for
counselors, teachers, parents, and adult engineers are also available at the
site.
"In very real and
concrete ways, women that become engineers save lives, prevent disease,
reduce poverty, and protect our planet," it states. "Dream Big. Love what
you do. Become an engineer."
BONUS CLICK:
www.engineergirl.org for
middle-school girls.
NEWS FOR THE FUTURIST COMMUNITY
* FUTURUM: The
abstract database of futures research has now been published. Futurum
presents abstracts of the most essential and important international futures
research and foresight journals. The database does not include complete
articles, but users are provided with the complete publishing information
and availability data. Futurum is a project of the Finland Futures Research
Centre, Turku School of Economics, in Turku, Finland. FREE trial access for
one week: Send contact information at
www.futurumdatabase.com. Further
details
(PDF).
* MILLENNIUM
PROJECT IN CHINA: Futurist Jerome C. Glenn, director of the Millennium
Project, returned recently from a trip to China, where he addressed the
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, the Chinese
Academy of Sciences, and the Ecological Society of China. Glenn offered each
group updates to the annual State of the Future report, as well as Futures
Research Methodology Version 3.0. He also schooled the Beijing Academy of
Science and Technology on the role that conscious technology could play in
ensuring the success of China's EcoCities initiatives.
DETAILS
****************************************************
What"s Hot @WFS.ORG
* STUDENT ESSAY
CONTEST WINNERS! WFS President Tim Mack has announced the winners of the
Society's 2009 essay competition:
- First place,
Samantha Palmer (Paul D. Schreiber High School, Port Washington, New York),
"Into the Future: A Glimpse of Medical Technology."
- Second place,
Jenna Leigh Chiemi Kagimoto (Hawaii Baptist Academy, Honolulu, Hawaii), "In
Pursuit of Perfection."
- Third place,
Maya Chandrasekaran (Upper St. Clair High School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania),
"Trends in the Global and American Economy."
Congratulations to the
winners, and many thanks to all of the participants and evaluators! Look for
more details soon at www.wfs.org .
* "FUTURING" ON
KINDLE: FUTURING: The Exploration of the Future, is now available on
Amazon.com's e-book platform, Kindle. WFS founder Edward Cornish's
comprehensive guide to the futures field has been described as a
"masterpiece" by Earth Policy Institute president Lester R. Brown and
"splendid" by Megatrends author John Naisbitt. More than 2,000
students per year use FUTURING as a primary text at more than 20 colleges
and universities. ORDER the Kindle edition
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0930242610/thefuturistbooks
* TWITTERS FROM THE
FUTURIST: Hey there! Theyear2030 is using Twitter. Twitter is a free service
that lets you keep in touch with people through the exchange of quick,
frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? Follow
Theyear2030 at THE FUTURIST's page,
www.wfs.org/futurist.htm , or follow by
joining Twitter today. Go to http://twitter.com/Theyear2030
* WHAT TO CALL THE
2010s DECADE: What will we call the decade coming up, 2010-2019? Will it be
the "twenty-tens," "twenty-teens," "two-thousand tens," or something else?
What about 2010 through 2012, which aren't "teen" years? Should we call them
the "twenty-tweens"? Send your ideas to FUTURIST UPDATE editor Cindy Wagner,
mailto:cwagner@wfs.org . And by the way, we still don't know what to call the
decade of 2000-2009. Any suggestions?
FUTURIST UPDATE: News & Previews from the World Future Society is an e-mail
newsletter published monthly as a supplement to THE FUTURIST magazine.
Copyright © 2008, World Future Society, 7910 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 450,
Bethesda, MD 20814, USA. Telephone 1-301-656-8274; e-mail
mailto:info@wfs.org
Web site www.wfs.org
mailto: info@wfs.org ; Web
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Editor: Cindy Wagner,
mailto:cwagner@wfs.org
Senior Editor: Patrick
Tucker, mailto:ptucker@wfs.org
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Submit feedback: to
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The WORLD FUTURE SOCIETY is a nonprofit, nonpartisan scientific and
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Society, including a subscription to THE FUTURIST, is $59 per year, or $20
for full-time students under age 25. Professional and Institutional
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