ArchivesTag : climate change

Climate Science Video – Is it Convincing?

As we watched the last days of the Olympics the past few days, I zeroed in on television ads sponsored by the American Oil & Gas industry – lots of these ads – and by the American coal industry. Both emphasized, with patriotic overtones, how important they are to creating jobs, and to achieving national [...]

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Glacier Retreat in Time-Lapse

Impressive time-lapse film of glacier retreat, promoting an upcoming NOVA program which aired a year ago.

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What 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 [...]

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The Prince and The Frog

The Prince and the Frog – it’s not what you think. Prince Charles envites you to embrace the frogs, and in doing so save the tropical rain forest. It’s not a fairy tale, but an SOS to save a crucial part of the planet, upon which we all depend. The rainforests, where these frogs live, [...]

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World on FiRe – Notes & Impressions from FiRe 2009

Last week included four eventful days at the annual Future In Review conference put on by the Strategic News Service. This year, the last at the San Diego Del Coronado was the best of the five I have attended, of the eight that have been held. (full disclosure – I am on the planning committee [...]

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The Future of Insurance, a futurist speaker program by Glen Hiemstra

On March 6, 2009 I had the opportunity to present a keynote on the future of insurance for Explore Information Services, a unit of USIS. This was a meeting of their advisory forum, a group of about thirty North American insurance companies that focus on property and automobile insurance. My job was to think with [...]

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One Thousand Years is not Enough

In 1999 and 2000 I had the privilege of helping to lead three retreat-like gatherings called Humanity 3000, in which scientists and international thought leaders asked a simple question: “What will it take for humanity to survive for another 1000 years?” Sponsored by the Foundation for the Future, the reports of those sessions can be [...]

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Futurist Speaker Glen Hiemstra: Outlook 2009

Outlook 2009 Watch the video of my Outlook for 2009 as a futurist, speaker, and consultant. This is my final blog entry of 2008, before we take a couple of weeks off. I am cautiously optimistic about 2009. This may surprise you. Here is why. Future of EEE – Economy, Energy, Environment Economy: When I [...]

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Climate Changing Faster, Stronger

According to an article currently up at CNN, the global climate is changing faster, stronger, sooner. This news is not surprising. The Snow and Ice Data Center, which tracks the Arctic situation among other responsibilities, reported in the end of summer 2008 survey of the extent of Arctic Ice after the summer melt period that [...]

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Future of Permafrost – bigger issue than ice

From Science Daily we learn of a new study published in the Journal of BioScience, Sep. 2008, on potential impacts of thawing arctic permafrost. Over millennia, according to the study authors, northern latitude permafrost has sequestered a trillion tons of organic compounds. Warming in the Arctic, which melts the polar ice cap, also has the [...]

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