Foundation For the Future | Humanity 3000 "Future of Planet Earth" Statement


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Website Search Announcements 2011 Kistler Prize Call for Nominations • Deadline: September 30, 2010 Streaming Video Playlists • Feature Films • Kistler Prize • Scholar Interviews • Scholar Lectures • Scholar Visions Recent Publications “Water – The Crisis Ahead” Executive Summary [2.1 MB PDF] Foundation News Vol. 12 • Fall 2009 [1.9 MB PDF] “Anthropogenic Climate Change: A Worst-case Scenario” Executive Summary [2 MB PDF] “Energy Challenges” Executive Summary [2 MB PDF] All Foundation publications are available for download from our Publications page. Planned Events 11th Annual Kistler Prize • September 22, 2010 Peter Ward Lecture • Walter P. Kistler Lecture Series • Town Hall Seattle • October 13, 2010 “Global Transitions and Asia 2060” Workshop • Taipei, Taiwan • November 3–6, 2010 RECENT Events Talk by Sesh Velamoor • "Managing the Future" • July 2010 “Water – The Crisis Ahead” • Humanity 3000 Workshop • April 2010 [AUDIO FILES] Brian Fagan Lecture • Walter P. Kistler Lecture Series • November 2009 10th Annual Kistler Prize • October 2009 Donald Johanson Lecture • Walter P. Kistler Lecture Series • September 2009	Programs Humanity 3000 HOME \| SEMINARS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 \| SYMPOSIA 1 2 \| WORKSHOPS 1 2 3 4 5 6 Seminar 9 “Future of Planet Earth” Participant Statement Paris, France \| June 3–5, 2008 < Previous \| Main \| Next > Eric J. Chaisson What are the three most critical challenges facing Planet Earth going forward? The three most critical challenges now facing planet Earth are energy, energy, and energy – understanding past energy-driven changes that have literally created us, recognizing the importance of energy use in our global society today, and demonstrating sensitivity to our descendents’ future energy needs on and beyond Earth: 1. Energy – specifically, the flow of energy per unit mass – is the single most unifying process that gave rise to increasing complexity over the course of billions of years, thus helping to produce galaxies, stars, planets, and life forms. 2. Energy – especially the rate of energy density usage, or per capita power consumption – is what maintains, indeed drives, our civilization today more than any other dynamic factor. 3. Energy – again, the use of it per unit time and per unit mass – is a key technical and sociological issue around which to plan a better Earth for future generations, not merely within the next hundred years but also within the next thousand years.