The 2030 Spike

Author : Colin Mason
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2013-06-17
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781136555107

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The 2030 Spike by Colin Mason Pdf

The clock is relentlessly ticking! Our world teeters on a knife-edge between a peaceful and prosperous future for all, and a dark winter of death and destruction that threatens to smother the light of civilization. Within 30 years, in the 2030 decade, six powerful 'drivers' will converge with unprecedented force in a statistical spike that could tear humanity apart and plunge the world into a new Dark Age. Depleted fuel supplies, massive population growth, poverty, global climate change, famine, growing water shortages and international lawlessness are on a crash course with potentially catastrophic consequences. In the face of both doomsaying and denial over the state of our world, Colin Mason cuts through the rhetoric and reams of conflicting data to muster the evidence to illustrate a broad picture of the world as it is, and our possible futures. Ultimately his message is clear; we must act decisively, collectively and immediately to alter the trajectory of humanity away from catastrophe. Offering over 100 priorities for immediate action, The 2030 Spike serves as a guidebook for humanity through the treacherous minefields and wastelands ahead to a bright, peaceful and prosperous future in which all humans have the opportunity to thrive and build a better civilization. This book is powerful and essential reading for all people concerned with the future of humanity and planet earth.

Author : Colin Mason
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 314 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2012-06-25
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781136572883

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A Short History of the Future by Colin Mason Pdf

Has the future a future? Are we bringing history to an end? Observing any one of several individual but critical trends suggests that, without rapid and positive action, history may have only a very short way to run. Whether it is the growth of world population, of greenhouse gas concentrations and the accelerating rate of climate change, the running down of oil and natural gas reserves, growing shortages of fresh water for agriculture, industry and domestic use, or the increasing difficulty in controlling epidemic diseases we are facing a mounting global crisis that will peak in less than a generation, around the year 2030. Taken together, these trends point to a potentially apocalyptic period, if not for the planet itself then certainly for human societies and for humankind. In this compelling book, and update to The 2030 Spike, Colin Mason explains in clear and irrefutable terms what is going on largely below the surface of our daily or weekly news bulletins. The picture he paints is stark, and yet it is not bleak. Being forewarned, we are forearmed, and he draws on his own extensive political experience to describe how much we can do as individuals, and above all collectively, not merely to avert crisis but to engineer thoroughgoing change that can usher in genuinely sustainable and valuable alternatives to the way we live now.

Author : Edward Cornish
Publisher : World Future Society
Page : 348 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : Education
ISBN : 0930242572

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Futuring by Edward Cornish Pdf

Author : Peter Taylor
Publisher : CLAIRVIEW BOOKS
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2012-12-10
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781905570577

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Chill, A Reassessment of Global Warming Theory by Peter Taylor Pdf

Although the world’s climate has undergone many cyclical changes, the phrase ‘climate change’ has taken on a sinister meaning, implying catastrophe for humanity, ecology and the environment. We are told that we are responsible for this threat, and that we should act immediately to prevent it. But the apparent scientific consensus over the causes and effects of climate change is not what it appears. Chill is a critical survey of the subject by a committed environmentalist and scientist. Based on extensive research, it reveals a disturbing collusion of interests responsible for creating a distorted understanding of changes in global climate. Scientific institutions, basing their work on critically flawed computer simulations and models, have gained influence and funding. In return they have allowed themselves to be directed by the needs of politicians and lobbyists for simple answers, slogans and targets. The resulting policy - a 60% reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050 - would have a huge, almost unimaginable, impact upon landscape, community and biodiversity. On the basis of his studies of satellite data, cloud cover, ocean and solar cycles, Peter Taylor concludes that the main driver of recent global warming has been an unprecedented combination of natural events. His investigations indicate that the current threat facing humanity is a period of global cooling, comparable in severity to the Little Ice Age of 1400-1700 AD. The risks of such cooling are potentially greater than global warming and on a more immediate time scale, with the possibility of failing harvests leaving hundreds of millions vulnerable to famine. Drawing on his experience of energy policy and sustainability, Taylor suggests practical steps that should be taken now. He urges a shift away from mistaken policies that attempt to avert inevitable natural changes, to an adaptation to a climate that is likely overall to turn significantly cooler.

Author : Carlos López Galviz,Emily Spiers
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 436 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2021-11-22
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780429803840

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Routledge Handbook of Social Futures by Carlos López Galviz,Emily Spiers Pdf

Featuring chapters from an international range of leading and emerging scholars, this Handbook provides a collection of cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research that sheds new light on contemporary futures studies. Engaging with key defining questions of the early twenty-first century such as climate change, big data, AI, the future of economics, education, mental health, cities and more, the Handbook provides a review and synthesis of futures scholarship, highlighting the role that societies can and should play in their making. While the various chapters demonstrate how futures emerge and take shape in particular places at particular times, the distinctive insight provided by the volume overall is that futures thinking today must be social and contextual. By presenting a range of futures work from contexts around the globe, the Handbook contextualizes techniques – forecasting, backcasting, scenario planning, collaboration and co-production– to ask how different dimensions of the social are created and circulated in the process. Through its thirty chapters, the volume explores and interrogates narratives, anticipations, enactments, ecologies, collaborations, prospections and so on to highlight which versions of the social are legitimized and which are encouraged and foreclosed. This Handbook opens an important conversation about the centrality of the social in futures thinking. By bringing arts, humanities and social sciences scholars and practitioners into conversation with biologists, environmental, climate and computer scientists, this volume seeks to encourage new pathways across, between and within multiple disciplines to interrogate the futures we need and want. The social must be our starting point if we are to steer our planet in a direction that supports good lives for the many, everywhere.

Author : Asheem Srivastav,Suvira Srivastav
Publisher : The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)
Page : 310 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2015-05-07
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9788179935729

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Ecological Meltdown by Asheem Srivastav,Suvira Srivastav Pdf

In the second edition of Ecological Meltdown: impact of unchecked human growth on the earth’s natural systems, the authors discuss the destruction of biodiversity and ecosystems due to human actions. Apart from warning about the impending ecological meltdown and analysing the causes behind it, the book deals with the solutions that need to be urgently adopted by the global civil society and national governments. The book is an invaluable resource for policymakers and institutions in the forestry, wildlife, energy, rural development, and environment sectors. It will also prove beneficial for conservationists, scientists, researchers, and students of environmental science. A new chapter on “Time for energy transition” has been added in this edition.

Author : Paul Mobbs
Publisher : Troubador Publishing Ltd
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1905237006

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Energy Beyond Oil by Paul Mobbs Pdf

Whilst you read this sentence the world, on average, has just burnt another seven to eight thousand barrels of oil. In fact, it gets through around eighty-two million barrels per day. The message you take from this book should be a positive one... that Western society is about to undergo a massive, collective shock. But, by applying basic principles of sustainable development we can live through this period... albeit without the ready-meals, cheap flights to Spain, 4x4's, Britney Spears videos, Formula One racing, plastic umbrellas...

Author : Peter Taylor
Publisher : Earthscan
Page : 295 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2013
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781849770538

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Beyond Conservation by Peter Taylor Pdf

After decades of operating off-the-backfoot and protecting and conserving nature perceived as under threat, conservationists are becoming proactive and creative in the face of habitat loss, agricultural intensification and climate change. Beyond Conservation offers a revolutionary agenda for both managing existing wildlands in Britain and for expanding and connecting such lands. Central to this strategy is the imperative to 'rewild' or restore and repair damaged habitat and ecosystems, promote existing biodiversity and reintroduce vanished plant and animal species, while working to reconcile human needs and livelihoods and the needs of nature.

Author : Roberto De Vogli
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2013
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780415490696

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Progress Or Collapse by Roberto De Vogli Pdf

In Progress or Collapse, Roberto De Vogli guides us through the multiple converging global crises of economic progress. He explores the connections between the environmental crisis and the psychological, social, cultural, political and economic emergencies affecting modern societies. It is not a coincidence, the author argues, that global ecological destruction is occurring in tandem with other crises: rising mental disorders, mindless consumerism, rampant conformism, status competition, civic disengagement, startling social inequalities, global financial instability, and widespread political impasse.

Author : Asheem Srivastav
Publisher : Springer
Page : 146 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2018-12-13
Category : Science
ISBN : 9789811308093

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The Science and Impact of Climate Change by Asheem Srivastav Pdf

This volume provides a holistic and concise overview of the complex science of climate change involving the interplay of multiple factors. It also acts as a primer and a one-source reference to all the aspects of climate change, allowing researchers to understand the complexity of this science and to see the larger picture, thereby aiming towards holistic solutions. Beginning in the second half of the twentieth century, the impacts of climate change have been the worst nightmare to hit humanity so fiercely, causing loss of human life and irreparable destruction to natural and man-made infrastructure in many parts of the world. The difference between climate change now and in the past is that of sudden and disproportionate disruption of the natural energy dynamics by the changing consumption patterns of billions of human beings who, in their quest for economic superiority, have polluted the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The picture that emerges from the exhaustive analysis of international data drawn from the most reliable sources indicates that we have possibly gained access to the gateway of extinction and it is time that we take corrective steps immediately. The book’s chapters not only provide an overview of climate change science but also include detailed discussion on current research. This unique analytical text is suitable for conservation environmentalists, researchers, and academicians working in the field, along with policy makers, research and training institutes, and nongovernment organizations.

Author : Bev Floyd
Publisher : Boolarong Press
Page : 246 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2014-11-20
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781925046304

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The Rise and Fall of the Australian Democrats by Bev Floyd Pdf

This book is the account of a Democrat insider; one who was both a woman and a Queensland President. Its focus on Queensland makes very interesting reading for those of us who shared the experiences.

Author : Robert H. Samet
Publisher : 4-Scene Development Corpora
Page : 309 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2009-03-24
Category : Change
ISBN : 9781439214343

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Long-range Futures Research by Robert H. Samet Pdf

This highly readable study explains how complexity science provides an evolutionary model for the civil system, with a new world view that out-ranges United Nations reference scenarios to beyond 2150.

Author : Richard Evanoff
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 300 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2010-09-13
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781136910340

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Bioregionalism and Global Ethics by Richard Evanoff Pdf

While a number of schools of environmental thought — including social ecology, ecofeminism, ecological Marxism, ecoanarchism, and bioregionalism — have attempted to link social issues to a concern for the environment, environmental ethics as an academic discipline has tended to focus more narrowly on ethics related either to changes in personal values or behavior, or to the various ways in which nature might be valued. What is lacking is a framework in which individual, social, and environmental concerns can be looked at not in isolation from each other, but rather in terms of their interrelationships. In this book, Evanoff aims to develop just such a philosophical framework — one in which ethical questions related to interactions between self, society, and nature can be discussed across disciplines and from a variety of different perspectives. The central problem his study investigates is the extent to which a dichotomized view of the relationship between nature and culture, perpetuated in ongoing debates over anthropocentric vs. ecocentric approaches to environmental ethics, might be overcome through the adoption of a transactional perspective, which offers a more dynamic and coevolutionary understanding of how humans interact with their natural environments. Unlike anthropocentric approaches to environmental ethics, which often privilege human concerns over ecological preservation, and some ecocentric approaches, which place more emphasis on preserving natural environments than on meeting human needs, a transactional approach attempts to create more symbiotic and less conflictual modes of interaction between human cultures and natural environments, which allow for the flourishing of both.

Author : Ferdinand J. Haberl
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 327 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2023-03-22
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9783031247446

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Jihadi Intelligence and Counterintelligence by Ferdinand J. Haberl Pdf

This book analyzes the ideological roots, structures and operational methods of Jihadi intelligence and counterintelligence activities. Based on a substantive collection of data on terrorist attacks, communication channels, recruitment methods, manuals and statements released by various Jihadi groups, it examines and compares the nature, ideology and realities of Jihadi intelligence operations. The author, an expert on Jihadist ideology and paramilitary intelligence, compares the modus operandi of terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and the IS with those of governmental intelligence agencies, and subsequently analyzes the role of historical and religious narratives that help Jihadist groups justify their actions and military management. Further topics covered include encryption, counterfeiting, covert operations and Jihadi intelligence activities in the digital realm. The insights shared here will allow readers to gain a comprehensive understanding of Jihadist groups and their intelligence operations, while helping practitioners and policymakers develop better counterterrorism activities and counternarratives.

Author : The Open University
Publisher : The Open University
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2024-05-02
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 8210379456XXX

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Understanding the environment: Complexity and chaos by The Open University Pdf

There is increasing recognition that the reductionist mindset that is currently dominating society, rooted in unlimited economic growth unperceptive to its social and environmental impact, cannot resolve the converging environmental, social and economic crises we now face. The primary aim of this free course, Understanding the environment: Complexity and chaos, is to encourage the shift away from reductionist and human centred thinking towards a holistic and ecological worldview.