Future Scope
Progress against E-Waste
Recycling of consumer electronics products increased by 53% from 2010 to 2011, netting 460 million pounds of discarded gadgets, reports the Consumer Electronics Association. The number of electronics drop-off sites across the United States also increased, from 5,000 to 7,500.
The average U.S. household owns about 25 different consumer electronics devices, but a pervasive desire for the next new thing results in a rapid turnover of products—and a potential landfill nightmare.
The association’s eCycling Leadership Initiative has set a goal of recycling 1 billion pounds of electronics by 2016—the equivalent of an NFL football stadium full of material. The goal is to increase collection options and improve consumer awareness of the availability of eCycling collection sites.
Source: Consumer Electronics Association, www.ce.org.
Are Rich Countries More Future Oriented?
Levels of public interest in the future may be related to differences in national wealth, suggest researchers at University College London. Analyzing Google search queries, they found that Internet users in countries with higher per capita GDP are more likely to search for information about the future than about the past.
The team devised a “future orientation index” based on search queries made by Internet users in 45 countries in 2010, comparing the frequency of searches about the coming year (2011) versus the previous year (2009). They then examined the user countries’ GDPs, finding a strong relationship between inquiries about the future and higher GDP.
Whether a people’s interest in the future is a “luxury” of being relatively well-to-do or a factor contributing to national well-being cannot be concluded from the research. The project’s goal is to use the massive amount of data generated by Internet searches to help better understand society’s complexity.
Source: University College London, www.ucl.ac.uk. The study, “Quantifying the Advantage of Looking Forward” by Tobias Preis, Helen Susannah Moat, H. Eugene Stanley, and Steven R. Bishop, was published in Scientific Reports and based on Google Trends data at www.google.com/trends.
Cancer Patients Choose "Hopeful Gambles"
Cancer patients are more likely to prefer high-risk treatments that may prolong survival versus safer treatments, according to University of Southern California researcher Darius Lakdawalla.
Given a choice between a “safe” treatment that is highly likely to keep the patient alive for 18 months (but no longer) and a treatment that has a 50-50 chance of adding either three years or none, 77% of the cancer patients studied chose to “swing for the fences.”
Insurers and policy makers should take note, Lakdawalla advises. “Consumers tend to dislike risk,” he says, “but patients facing a fatal disease with relatively short remaining life expectancy may have less to lose. … Value [of treatment options] should be defined from the viewpoint of the patient.”
Source: University of Southern California, www.usc.edu.
More Americans with Degrees
Educational attainment has reached a new milestone in the United States, as more than 30% of adults age 25 and older had earned at least a bachelor’s degree as of March 2011, reports the Census Bureau.
Socioeconomic disparities persist, but one segment of the population showed particularly promising improvement: The number of Hispanics with at least a bachelor’s degree increased by 80% in the first decade of the century, climbing to 3.8 million (14.1% of Hispanic adults) by 2011.
“For many people, education is a sure path to a prosperous life,” says Census Bureau director Robert Groves. “The more education people have, the more likely they are to have a job and earn more money, particularly for individuals who hold a bachelor’s degree.”
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, www.census.gov.