March-April 2009

March-April 2009 Volume 43, No. 2 Order the March-April issue in print form.

Algae, a Panacea Crop?
NASA scientist Dennis Bushnell argues the future is green ... and salty.

VisionariesBy Patrick Tucker
Saving the Planet, One Cloud at a Time:
Two British researchers offer an ambitious plan to save the world from global warming.

World Trends and Forecasts

Google Searches Its Future
The Internet king is contemplating an expanding frontier

Hooked Up or Just Hooked?
Teens spend four hours per day either watching television or online.

New Greenhouse Gas Threat
And you thought carbon dioxide was bad!

BOOKS

Too Free for Our Own Good?
In a free market, it’s much too easy to make choices that endanger our health and wealth, observes Peter A. Ubel, a primary-care physician, in Free Market Madness. In a free market, we are free to overeat, smoke, drink excessively, ruin our credit, and not save enough for retirement, and it’s much to easy for us to make choices that endanger both our health and wealth. Review by Rick Docksai.

Imagining an American Utopia
If ever a book warranted a place by the bedside of the next president of the United States (and his Cabinet appointees), Herbert J. Gans’s “utopian narrative” Imagining America in 2033 is it. Likewise, any futurist eager to learn how the American presidents from now through 2033 might craft a remarkably finer country (and thereby, a much better world) have an indispensable primer here. Written in the form of an engaging novel, rather than a stuffy academic treatise, the book lightly instructs in policy studies, pragmatic reforms, and the gritty give-and-take of tomorrow's White House realities. Review by Arthur Shostak

Tomorrow in Brief

Timeline for the Future: Potential Developments and Likely Impacts

By Marvin J. Cetron
Designer babies, fiber optic plants, synthetic celebrities, and more: A timeline suggests when we’ll see the evolving technologies that will radically reshape human life. PDF available.

Emerging Technologies and the Global Crisis of Maturity

By William E. Halal
As technological development surges on, the ability of institutions to handle change is stifled by outmoded social systems. To survive the technological revolution in the midst of global crisis, a social revolution is also needed that will bring institutions and civilization to a higher stage of maturity.
PDF available

Algae Power: Will Pond Scum Reduce Petroleum Dependence?

One remedy for the world's oil addiction could come from the same organism from which most petroleum was made. Algae may use our waste to power cars of the future (added commentary by Nick Hodge). PDF available

A Realistic Energy Strategy

By Tsvi Bisk
Energy policy must be realistic or it won’t work, says strategy analyst Tsvi Bisk. Fortunately, clean and sustainable energy is more realistic than you may think.
PDF available

Saving the Environment: Five Creative Approaches

By Clifton Anderson
The actions of five individuals offer insights into how best to move toward a more environmentally sustainable future. PDF available

World Trends and Forecasts

Stopping the Use of Child Soldiers
Slow progress is being made in ending the use of children in combat.
Racial Prejudice Declines in Britain
Increased heterogeneity spurs increased racial tolerance.
Oil Exports May Soon Dry Up
Petroleum available for foreign export may peak within 25 years.
By Chris Nelder