Earth

The sun strikes every square meter of our planet with more than 1,360 watts of power. Half of that energy is absorbed by the atmosphere or reflected back into space. 700 watts of power, on average, reaches Earth’s surface. Summed across the half of the Earth that the sun is shining on, that is 89 petawatts of power. By comparison, all of human civilization uses around 15 terrawatts of power, or one six-thousandth as much. In 14 and a half seconds, the sun provides as much energy to Earth as humanity uses in a day.

The recent massive earthquake accompanied by a devastating tsunami and, worse, by the explosion of nuclear reactors endangered the lives of many Japanese. It proved once again that the future is not in control. It is as uncertain as before.

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), launched in 2000 in the UK to accelerate solutions to climate change by putting relevant information at the heart of business, policy and investment decisions, is a first step in the right direction. The organization has around 3,000 members in 60 countries and requests carbon and climate change information from the world`s biggest economies and corporations.

As William Law once wrote, “perpetual inspiration is as necessary to the life of goodness, holiness and happiness as perpetual respiration is necessary to animal life”.

Here are some recent future-related titles from the Center for Strategic International Studies, Yale, Georgetown Press and some other organizations that produce exceptional material for the futurist who insists on the best possible material. Happy reading.