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MORE-FERTILE FORESTS CAN FIGHT GREENHOUSE EFFECT Increasing the growth of trees in forests through intensive fertilization may increase the amount of carbon that the forest absorbs, thus helping to slow global warming.Experiments in a spruce forest by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences show that the forest could triple its growth if the trees have access to all plant nutrients, particularly nitrogen. This extra growth offers not only an improved carbon sink, but also an alternative source of fuel to replace fossil fuels, which would also help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, the researchers note. SOURCE: Swedish Research Council, http://www.vr.se/english/ PHONE COUNSELING PROVES EFFECTIVE Smokers and dieters who live far from clinics could get the professional help they need from new phone-based programs offering direct access to counselors. A University of Kansas program found that obese patients using its telephone counseling services lost as much weight as those receiving face-to-face counseling. For providers of counseling services, the telephone program could significantly lower costs. And for patients, it means less trouble to schedule counseling sessions around work and family commitments. A similar program for helping smokers quit has been launched in Maine. Health professionals counsel the callers needing help coping with the side effects of nicotine-replacement therapy. A recent study found that participants using both nicotine-replacement therapy and phone counseling had the highest quit rates. SOURCES: University of Kansas,
http://www.news.ku.edu/2005/October/Oct19/phonediet.shtml ETHICS EDUCATION AT BUSINESS SCHOOLS More business schools around the world have added ethics to their curricula, reports a study by the World Resources Institute and the Aspen Institute. The study, "Beyond Grey Pinstripes," found that 54% of the 91 business schools surveyed required a course in ethics, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, or business and society. This is up from just 34% in 2001. The report also noted new, innovative courses on such topics as private-sector approaches for solving problems in low-income markets. The courses are part of a wider effort in business education to prepare tomorrow's leaders for the new realities of a global economy. "To be competitive, corporations need to recast social and environmental problems as business growth opportunities," comments Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute. "These schools are leading the way in providing students with the skills that are becoming increasingly valuable to the bottom line. Such skills are needed to meet the emerging challenges of climate change, water scarcity, labor issues, and poverty alleviation with innovative technologies and entrepreneurship." SOURCE: The World Resources Institute, http://newsroom.wri.org/newsrelease_text.cfm?NewsReleaseID=346 ************************************ BRINGING GLOBAL STRATEGIES TO TORONTO Respected Canadian journalist Pamela Wallin will speak at the World Future Society's 2006 annual meeting, to be held next July in Toronto. Wallin is the former CTV weekend anchor and now Consul General to New York City. WorldFuture 2006: Creating Global Strategies for Humanity's Future will focus on understanding trends, anticipating change, and creating a world that works for everyone. Join 1,000 inspiring, forward-looking men and women to get the latest information and ideas on new technologies and their impacts, goals and new directions for education, health-care challenges and potential solutions, environmental problems and creative resolutions, and much more. LEARN MORE: WorldFuture 2006, http://www.wfs.org/2006main.htm ************************************ MORE R&D NEEDED FOR NEGLECTED DISEASES A new study calls for more efforts to treat "neglected diseases"--deadly afflictions for which few new therapies have been introduced. Among the targets are malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, and sleeping sickness. Neglected diseases kill approximately 3 million people a year; these premature deaths cost the world some 92 million years of healthy life, notes the report, "The New Landscape of Neglected Disease Drug Development." With a strong push from policy makers, new drug-development initiatives within public-private partnerships could yield at least eight new drugs by 2010, according to the study by London School of Economics and Political Science and financed by the Wellcome Trust. The study recommends the creation of a public fund to pay for the drug R&D, with incentives to encourage research among smaller companies that are becoming bigger players in neglected-disease work. SOURCE: Wellcome Trust, http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_WTX026606.html U.S. SPECIAL FORCES TRAIN IN "ADAPTIVE THINKING" U.S. special-forces soldiers are learning how to negotiate, resolve conflicts, and think within cross-cultural settings through a simulation game developed by Sandia National Laboratories. The Adaptive Thinking and Leadership simulation focuses on developing the soldiers' "interpersonal flexibility and strategic communications," according to Sandia researcher and project leader Elaine Raybourn. The games can be played by an individual or in a networked game with as many as 24 players. The instructors can modify the immersive scenarios as the game is played, changing the direction of the game. The exercises are intended to help the soldiers communicate with respect and to work effectively with individuals in other cultures. "Communication skills and interpersonal adaptability are paramount in successfully achieving Special Forces objectives," says Raybourn. SOURCE: Sandia National Laboratories, ****************************** KUDOS FOR FUTURING The biggest blunders of the twenty-first century so far have been failures of planning, says Mark Satin, author of RADICAL MIDDLE <http://www.wfs.org/revsatinjf05.htm>. The antidote is futuring, Satin suggests in his recent review of FUTURING: The Exploration of the Future by Edward Cornish. The book, he writes, "may be the most significant hands-on political book since David Osborne and Ted Gaebler's REINVENTING GOVERNMENT (1992). If we want to figure out how to successfully assess and steer the phenomenally complex high-tech world we've created, no book may be better worth our while." Satin's review appears in the October 15 issue of his RADICAL MIDDLE newsletter, http://www.radicalmiddle.com/x_cornish.htm ORDER the book: http://www.wfs.org/futuring.htm ************************************ CLICK OF THE MONTH:
CENTER FOR THE FUTURE A new Center for the Future is now being created at Fullerton College in California, led by Bruce Cordell, dean of Natural Sciences, and Dan Tesar, dean of the History Department. While the Center develops, its Web site will add links to resources, presentations, and other information vital to futures studies in higher education. Visit the site now to download the Centers' action plan or view a presentation by Cordell and Tesar on futures studies faculty development. NEWS FROM THE FUTURIST COMMUNITY • PAPERS SOUGHT ON FORESIGHT PRACTICES: The Eighth International Conference of Finland Futures Research Centre and Finland Futures Academy is issuing a call for papers and posters on the conference theme, Changing Foresight Practices in Regional Development--Global Pressures and Regional Possibilities. The conference will be held June 7–9, 2006, in Turku, Finland. DETAILS: http://www.tukkk.fi/tutu/conference2006
FUTURIST UPDATE: News & Previews from the World Future Society is an e-mail newsletter published monthly as a supplement to THE FUTURIST magazine. Copyright © 2005, World Future Society, 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 450, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA. Telephone 1-301-656-8274; e-mail mailto:info@wfs.org; Web site http://www.wfs.org. Editor: Cindy Wagner To subscribe, send an e-mail message to mailto:majordomo@wfs.org
with "subscribe futurist-update" in the BODY of the message. The WORLD FUTURE SOCIETY is a nonprofit, nonpartisan scientific and educational association with a global membership. Regular membership in the Society, including a subscription to THE FUTURIST, is $49 per year, or $20 for full-time students under age 25. Professional and Institutional membership programs are also offered; contact Society headquarters for details: http://www.wfs.org |
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