The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Civilization's Northern FutureA vivid forecast of our planet in the year 2050 by a rising star in geoscience, distilling cutting-edge research into four global forces: demographic trends, natural resource demand, climate change, and globalization. The world's population is exploding, wild species are vanishing, our environment is degrading, and the costs of resources from oil to water are going nowhere but up. So what kind of world are we leaving for our children and grandchildren? Geoscientist and Guggenheim fellow Laurence Smith draws on the latest global modeling research to construct a sweeping thought experiment on what our world will be like in 2050. The result is both good news and bad: Eight nations of the Arctic Rim (including the United States) will become increasingly prosperous, powerful, and politically stable, while those closer to the equator will face water shortages, aging populations, and crowded megacities sapped by the rising costs of energy and coastal flooding. The World in 2050 combines the lessons of geography and history with state-of-the-art model projections and analytical data-everything from climate dynamics and resource stocks to age distributions and economic growth projections. But Smith offers more than a compendium of statistics and studies- he spent fifteen months traveling the Arctic Rim, collecting stories and insights that resonate throughout the book. It is an approach much like Jared Diamond took in Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse, a work of geoscientific investigation rich in the appreciation of human diversity. Packed with stunning photographs, original maps, and informative tables, this is the most authoritative, balanced, and compelling account available of the world of challenges and opportunities that we will leave for our children. |
Contents
A Tale of Teeming Cities | |
Iron Oil and Wind | |
California Browning Shanghai Drowning | |
Two Weddings and a Computer Model | |
One if by Land Two if by | |
The Third Wave | |
CHAPTER 8 Goodbye Harpoon Hello Briefcase | |
The Pentagon Report | |
The New North | |
NOTES | |
Other editions - View all
The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Civilization's Northern Future Laurence C. Smith Limited preview - 2011 |
The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Civilization's Northern Future Laurence C. Smith No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
aboriginal agriculture Alaska American aquifers Arctic Council Arctic Ocean Assessment average biofuels Canada Canadian carbon century Chapter China cities climate change climate models coal cold consumption corporations decades demographic drought Earth East economic electricity energy environmental ethanol Finland fuel future geographic geological Geophysical glaciers global forces greenhouse gas Greenland groundwater growing growth happened human hundred hydrogen Ice Sheet Iceland immigration industry International Inuit IPCC IPCC AR4 Japan lakes latitudes meters million natural gas natural resources nearly NORC Nordic countries North America northern Norway Nunavut º º oil and gas permafrost places polar bears political population power plants production region Research rise River Russia Russian Federation Sámi scenario Science scientists sea ice sea level settlement Siberian solar southern Soviet square kilometers tar sands temperatures thousand today’s trade trends trillion UNCLOS urban warming winter roads