In This Issue...
* Making Disasters Less Disastrous
* Earth Science Literacy
* Rapid Virus Detection
* Click of the Month: Engineer Your Life
* News for the Futurist Community
* What’s Hot @WFS.ORG
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
http://www.unisdr.org/
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
http://www.earthscienceliteracy.org/
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
http://www.utwente.nl/
http://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: http://www.engineergirl.org for middle-school girls.
* 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 http://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 http://www.millennium-project.org/
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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?