Special to Web
visitors, here are a few of the editors' favorite forecasts from the current
issue of THE FUTURIST:
* Gasses drawn from
lakes could provide energy for hundreds of years. Methane dissolved in Rwanda's Lake
Kivu represents a massive explosion risk, but if pumped out of the lake it could be burned
for electricity instead of wood. (Tomorrow in Brief)
* Polar bears could starve off in the next 100 years as
global warming melts their habitats. While the bears themselves are hardy enough to
withstand temperature changes, the thinning ice they live on reduce the area in which they
can hunt, eat, and mate. (World Trends & Forecasts, Environment)
* Nano-forecasts: water from air, smart hearing aids, paint-on video displays, and more. Over the next 15 years, a staggering array of
new technologies will come out of today's nascent nanotech research, such as noninvasive
surgery, self-stabilizing buildings that withstand bombs and earthquakes, and rewritable
electronic paper for print media. (World Trends & Forecasts, Technology)
* The future of development is restoration, not sustainability. Restorative
development, such as turning contaminated brownfields into thriving businesses,
could become the dominant economic growth mode. Unlike traditional development projects,
restorative projects do not destroy the land. ("Restorative Development: Economic
Growth without Destruction" by Storm Cunningham)
* About 12% of the world's remaining bird species--some
1,200 species--may face extinction within the next century. Birds' fragile futures are
threatened by habitat loss, exotic species invasions, and problems caused by humans, such
as hunting, poisoning, and global warming. ("Silenced Spring: Disappearing
Birds" by Howard Youth)
