Some “Futurists” Have Optimistic Forecasts

About 25 years ago I came across a professional “futurist,” i.e., a gentleman whose career is based on predicting the future based on the present.  (Actually, I presume that his work is based on the present, though I’m not sure what else could inform it.)

In any case, futurists of today have much more weight on their shoulders than they did at the time; this whole subject has taken on a far more serious tone over the last couple of decades.  At the time, the world was interested in better telephony, faster microprocessors, a cure for AIDS, and perhaps the effects of a growing population.  Now, of course, many of us wonder if we can expect the continuation of our civilization as we now know it.  To take an example, what happens when the Greenland Ice Sheet melts and the oceans rise 20 feet?

What makes this even more interesting is that there are folks who believe in a soft landing for all this—and they can defend their positions very well.  Take Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor at Stanford University, for instance.  Here’s a guy, and a fabulously well informed one at that, who predicts 100% renewable energy in the U.S. by 2050.  I hope you’ll check this out.