Archive for 'Current Choices for a Better Future'
Underwater view is not clear
If you missed it today, this underwater diving expedition for ABC news by Philippe Cousteau Jr. and Sam Champion is worth watching. I have a foreboding that humans will sacrifice just about anything to acquire the last drops of oil, no matter the risks or the alternatives. I am not sure why we are so [...]
Full StoryThe future of transportation
Tomorrow I have the privilege of doing the keynote speech for the opening of the 2010 Northwest Transportation Conference, being held on the campus of OSU in Corvallis, Oregon. I’ve been asked to offer “Reflections on Transportation Futures – Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.” My belief is that for transportation we are at a time in [...]
Full StoryWhat is Smart Growth
January was the hottest month on record (going back to 1880) in Seattle, some 7 degrees F above normal You can see the evidence in this photo of my Iris’s that I just took. Kind of messes up the notion that because it was cold on the East Coast this year that global warming must [...]
Full StorySolar Powered Tents Needed
In April of 2008 I had the opportunity to attend a week-long seminar offered by Cambridge University Prince of Wales Programme on Business and the Environment. This U.S. seminar was held in Washington state. It was a great week in every way, but one activity stood out. Late in the week participants were challenged in [...]
Full StoryFuture of Health Care Reform in U.S. Now
The standard chorus today, following a win by Senator Elect Brown in Massachusetts, is that health care reform is either dead, or must be substantially revised to be passed into law. I don’t know that it is dead, but it is on life support. Somehow, in the very long process of developing the current legislation, [...]
Full StoryGoodwill games to bridge U.S.-Muslim divides?
The Goodwill Games were created in the 1980’s as a brainchild of Ted Turner, in an effort to help bridge the gap between the then Soviet Union and the U.S., following the Olympic boycotts of the 1980’s. The effort was really quite successful, and I personally remember the 2nd Goodwill Games, held in 1990 here [...]
Full StoryPodcast of Glen Hiemstra Keynote on Systems Change
In mid-October 2009 I gave a closing keynote speech to the 2009 Institute for Oral Health conference on defining quality. They had asked me to address the question of how one goes about promoting systems change. The podcast of my talk is now available here. To provide some insight on making systems change, I went [...]
Full StoryThe futurists and local transportation futures
The past week has been one of publicity for me, Futurist.com, and Seattle-area futurists. The Seattle Times, in their Sunday magazine called Pacific Northwest, did a cover story profile, called “The Futurists.” The writer, Carol Ostrom, had approached me with the concept for a story on future trends and in the initial conversation asked whether [...]
Full StoryFuture of U.S. Health Insurance Costs
Recently my friend Mark Anderson was quoted as saying that rising health insurance costs were a key reason that General Motors faltered. This was my argument when I suggested to Business Week early this year that relieving business of the private insurance industry costs would be an innovation that would assist in getting beyond the [...]
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