Showing posts with label the world in 2050. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the world in 2050. Show all posts
Monday, February 21, 2011
The World In 2050 Four Forces Shaping Civilizations Northern Future by Laurence C. Smith
The World In 2050 Four Forces Shaping Civilizations Northern Future by Laurence C. Smith
Laurence C. Smith is a geographer and a professor of earth and space science at UCLA. This book is about much more than climate change. It is about how the arctic is changing. This change is fueling a race for new resources in oil, natural gas, fisheries, mining, shipping, and open land.
In the beginning of the book, he focuses on four forces that bring change to the world; demographics, climate change, natural resource demand, and globalization. All of these are increasingly important. Global temperatures are rising, there are more people, more people are moving to cities, there is less water and other resources, and trade is more interdependent worldwide.
I think he may be wrong about some things. He does not factor in new technologies like urban farming, wave power, or digital fabrication. He is basing his predictions on there being no major breakthrough technologies.
The book is fascinating. It is easy to follow the changes he is describing. Brazil, Russia, India, and China are becoming manufacturing powers. India's cities are going to be the largest in the world.
We get to read about the consequences both negative and positive of the four forces. One thing I found especially interesting was his description of how wildlife and plant life are starting to move northward towards the heating arctic. I especially liked his description of a hybrid grizzly/polar bear.
In the second part of the book, he describes how the NORC countries; Canada, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and the United States are going to benefit in some ways from the opening of the arctic. Part of this description is how the United Nations arctic treaties are cementing the NORC countries peaceful control over the area.
Russia and Canada will be the futures largest suppliers of oil and natural gas. Also, there will be more water in the north as the arctic warms, and the southern countries water supplies dry up. The predictions show a pattern of rising importance for the northern countires.
We also learn how native populations in the Arctic will become more important, just like in Alaska where land and oil rights were given to many native Americans; in Canada, a whole new territory called New Nunavut has been carved out of the Arctic for the Canadian native peoples. It is being developed along a similar pattern to Alaska.
This is a fascinating story. I think the changes he is describing will be much faster than Laurence C. Smith anticipates. He is using very mainstream measurements.. There is a lot in this book worth thinking about.
Daily Thoughts 2/21/2011 (redemption in indigo)
Daily Thoughts 2/21/2011
Last night, I finished reading The World In 2050. It was an excellent book.
I enjoyed reading Redemption In Indigo by Karen Lord which is a fantasy novel based on Senegalese foklore. It had a timeless quality to it.
I am going to the New York City Taxonomy Meetup on Wednesday. http://www.meetup.com/NYC-Taxonomy-Community/events/16582589/
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Daily Thoughts 2/20/2011 (Ebooks, The World In 2050)
Daily Thoughts 2/20/2011
I have been reading some more of The World in 2050. The author is describing how the United States during World War II opened the Canadian frontier in the Arctic with roads as part of the war effort. Laurence C. Smith also describes how Stalin created cities in the Arctic as part of the gulag system as well as a way to get at the oil and gas reserves in a very cold part of the world.
I also spent some time on Scribd today. It is amazing the kinds of things which people will put up on Scribd. There is a lot of muckraking journalism which you will not find anywhere else.
I also spent a little more time on the library twitter account. It will slowly grow every single day.
I watched an animated version of The Man In The Iron Mask. It was a light diversion, not as good as the book of course.
Web Bits
Helping Customers with Ebooks --One Example
http://libraryrenewal.org/2011/02/20/helping-customers-with-ebooks-one-example/
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Daily Thoughts 2/19/2011 (ebooks, poetry, the world in 2050)
Date 2/19/2011
I have been reading more of The World In 2050. Laurence C. Smith is describing how the ice melt in the Arctic ocean will open up shipping, mining, and new resources around the arctic. He is also describing how the United States, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Russia are going to be able to use the changes. It was interesting looking at a picture of a potato farm in Greenland.
Article about Poetry Networking Workshop which was held at my library in the Mount Vernon Inquirer. http://www.mvinquirer.com/poetry_networking_workshop.htm
I put the ebooks, The Bed of Procrustes Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson on hold. They will notify me by email when I can download them to my computer. I also found out that there was an enhanced ebook of Life by Keith Richards which was available to check out.
Web Bits
TED Launches Quora Like Platform for Intelligent Discussion
http://mashable.com/2011/02/16/ted-conversations/
Friday, February 18, 2011
Daily Thoughts 2/18/2011 (the World in 2050)
Daily Thoughts 2/18/2011
This afternoon I read some more of The World In 2050. The author is describing how climate change will drive more people northward. The arctic will open up and more water will be concentrated in the north in Canada and Russia. Also Russia and Canada will have the largest remaining supply of oil in the world. It is quite interesting. Quite a bit of it is more than just environmental trends it is also social trends.
I have also been thinking about content management and content strategy in the context of books. I think there are going to be openings as more publishers turn towards ebooks and enhanced ebooks. I also think that more companies are going to be working on strategies to create large content sites for publishing. This will require skills in XML, taxonomy, metadata, and content mangement. This is also part of the future of librarianship.
Catalogs will become more integrated and start including electronic content. Librarians will have to expand their skils beyond books. This is already starting with many information architects coming from a library background. It is also starting to expand into content management where more collection oriented librarians may be heading towards. Services like Blio from Baker and Taylor, Copia, and other social reading applications are large repositories of information and ebooks.
I may try and switch nights so I can go to the Taxonomy meetup on Wednesday.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Daily Thoughts 2/15/2011(Advocacy, Conferences, the world in 2050)
Daily Thoughts 2/15/2011
I have been busy taking care of some personal matters. I did get a chance to stop by my local library and pick up a copy of The World In 2050 Four Forces Shaping Civilizations Northern Future. It is about coming major population, climate, globalization, and natural resource use. The author does not touch that deeply on the fifth technology.
Looking at O'Reilly Tools for Change Startup Publishing Showcase. There are quite a few interesting companies. http://www.toccon.com/toc2011/public/schedule/detail/17744
Web Bits
From Metro New York Library Council
Library Advocacy Needed: House Considering Two Amendments Critical to Future of Libraries
http://metro.org/en/art/271/ Please take some time to write your representative in support of libraries. I did.
Scott Turow, President Authors Guild, Let-Them-Eat-Cake-Attitude Threatens to Destroy a Network of Public Assets http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-turow/letthemeatcakeattitude-th_b_823609.html%20
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