Category Archives: Transhuman News

"The consequences of this industrys unfettered carbon emissions will reach everyone on the planet." Trash Mountain

Our species' bottomless appetite for plastic isn't just a problem because of all the waste it generates. Its production is also spewing unchecked greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report released this week by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The work shows that our reliance on the ubiquitous material is undermining climate change mitigation efforts, not to mention adding endless plastic pollution to the environment and our bodies in the form of insidious and far reaching microplastics.

"Petrochemicals, the building block of plastic, are already poisoning communities that neighbor production facilities with cancer-causing pollution," Bloomberg Philanthropies Beyond Petrochemicals executive director and one of the report's sponsors Heather McTeer Toney toldThe Guardian. "The consequences of this industrys unfettered carbon emissions will reach everyone on the planet."

The scientists found that even a conservative scenario of the plastic sector growing at 2.5 percent per year would result in a future in which greenhouse gas emissions from plastic production could more than double by 2050 and make up 21 to 26 percent of the planetary carbon budget that keeps temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

A less conservative scenario in which the plastic sector grows by four percent per year would see greenhouse gas emissions increasing three fold by 2050, making up a staggering 25 to 31 percent of the planetary carbon budget to keep warming at 1.5 degree Celsius.

The team arrived at the findings by analyzing how plastic is produced, from the extraction of fossil fuels toproducing finished products.

The findings are grim, according to the scientists, and defy easy fixes much like the rest of the climate crisis, tragically.

More on plastic: Scientists Find Bottled Water Filled With Hundreds of Thousands of Microplastics

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Plastic Is Starting to Generate a Staggering Proportion of Earth's Carbon Pollution - Futurism

"We believe that a lot of their so-called civilian space program is a military program." Full Nelson

NASA's administrator is once again making outrageous claims about China's space capabilities and in the process, fueling the off-world rivalry between the two.

"We believe that a lot of [China's] so-called civilian space program is a military program," Administrator Bill Nelson said during remarks on Capitol Hill this week, per The Guardian. "And I think, in effect, we are in a race."

The comments, as the website notes, came during a hearing before the House Appropriations Committee which means that Nelson was making them while asking for money for NASA, which has requested a whopping $25.384 billion for its 2025 funding.

"China has made extraordinary strides, especially in the last 10 years," Nelson continued, "but they are very, very secretive."

It's unclear from the reporting about the administrator's comments what evidence his claims are riding on. This is not, as we mentioned, the first time Nelson has made such bold accusations about our sometimes-ally.

Sworn in in May 2021, Nelson has for much of his tenure warned that China could usurp America's space advantage at any moment and has used similarly bold claims to demonstrate that point.

Just a year into the job and during another House Appropriations Committee hearing the administrator straight-up accused China of stealing American spacecraft designs.

"Yeah, they're pretty good at stealing," Nelson told the subcommittee in May 2022, "and I think that's incumbent upon us to take cybersecurity very, very seriously."

Just a few months later, he claimed in an interview with a random German newspaper that China wants to "steal" the Moon as well, which prompted a response from the rival nation.

"The US side has constantly constructed a smear campaign against China's normal and reasonable outer space endeavors," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in a press statement, "and China firmly opposes such irresponsible remarks."

While there certainly is no love lost between Nelson and his Chinese counterparts, the incendiary discourse between these space race rivals generally seems to originate on the American side.

Last fall, Nelson again claimed that China plans to hoard lunar resources for itself, which would go against the United Nations' binding space treaty of 1967 and in his more recent remarks, he reiterated those remarks while begging for more money.

"The latest date they've said they're going to land [on the Moon] is 2030, but that keeps moving up," Nelson told Congress, per transcription from Sky News. "It is incumbent on us to get there first and to utilize our research efforts for peaceful purposes."

At this point, the lengthy list of receipts of this sort of recurrent rhetoric coming from the top of NASA does make one wonder: is China on the offensive, or is America?

More on NASA: NASA Admits Space Station Junk Crashed Through Man's Roof

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Head of NASA Says China Is Hiding Military Experiments in Space - Futurism

I do not consider myself a nerd.

But what you are about to read may make it hard to believe that statement.

My mom didnt splurge on luxuries.

She didnt own new furniture with the exception of a mahogany formal dining room set that was a wedding gift from my dad until she was in her late 50s.

But there were a few things that most wouldnt consider essential, that she made sure she bought regardless of the scrimping it took.

One of them was encyclopedias.

The value of books, especially encyclopedias, was instilled in my mom by her mother.

Edna Towles formal education ended in the eighth grade.

Grandmother taught in a one-room school house for two years in the wilderness that was the Smartville area in western Nevada County just after the dawn of the 20th century.

She became a cattle ranchers wife and then ended up as the rancher when my grandfather left her high and dry with seven kids to raise at the start of the Great Depression.

It clearly was a struggle. Despite that, she found a way for her kids to have a used encyclopedia set at home.

My mom started acquiring encyclopedias for her kids the way many households did in the 1950s and early 1960s.

It was one volume at a time through weekly grocery store promotions.

That is how our familys first encyclopedia set, The Golden Book Childrens Encyclopedia, was obtained.

It was also the way the second set, The Golden Book Encyclopedia for Home & High School, made its way into our household.

When my oldest brother was about to enter high school, mom decided she needed to get better encyclopedias.

The result were three sets she bought on the installment plan for what was then an ungodly sum of $200.

They were the Book of Knowledge, Grolier Encyclopedia, and The Book of Popular Science Encyclopedia.

She also, for a number of years, bought a hardback annual recap of world events the Book of Knowledge published each year.

When I was 7 years of age, there were five encyclopedia sets in our house.

My brothers used them to help with homework.

I went one step further.

I read them for pleasure. All of them.

I would entertain myself for hours doing just that.

If that doesnt strike you as a bit nerdish, it was just a precursor.

By the time I was in the eighth grade and earning money doing odd jobs, I was able to put aside money not needed for clothes to buy subscriptions to three magazines.

Boys Life? Sports Illustrated? Popular Mechanics?

Try Newsweek, Time, and US News & World Report.

Three weekly news magazines I couldnt wait to arrive in the mail.

I took it further.

My mom allowed me to tack the covers of Newsweek and Time US News & World Report was pretty boring to my bedroom wall.

Other preteens had posters of sports figures and such plastering their walls.

I had images of politicians and newsmakers.

Real photographs from Newsweek and artist renderings which was Times forte.

It goes without saying that I place a large degree of value in the printed word, literally and figuratively.

It doesnt take too much of a leap to figure out that I had a well-worn library card growing up.

That said, Im not a book collector, per se.

I do have some books that I keep and periodically reference and read again.

The biggest collection is centered around water and its politics.

Much of my reading today consists of PDFs produced by government agencies that are sometimes so laborious and lengthy, they take longer to download than the Titanic takes to upload.

Its been more than a few years since Ive made my way to the library to browse the shelves.

That, by the way, is the best way to find something of interest that youd never try on your own. More horizons and such get opened up that way.

Which is why I abhor algorithms think Netflix to recommend what you should explore. All it does is limit your world if you follow their led.

It is also why I take a dim view of those seeking to ban books that they dont agree with or feel threatened by.

There were 4,240 different book titles targeted for banning in 2023, according to the American Library Association.

Its the most titles ever since the association started tracking book ban efforts decades ago.

For a bit of comparison, the 2023 numbers for books targeted for banning in schools and public libraries was up 65 percent from the previous year.

Its roughly 15 times more than in 2015 when 275 titles were challenged including the Bible.

The two biggest states for attempts to ban books were Florida at 2,672 titles followed by Texas at 1,470.

James LeRue, Director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom back in 2015, noted book bans reflect the fact cultures change over time, and the things we fear, or celebrate, change with them.

Going from 275 unique books being targeted for banning a decade ago to 4,270 today does indeed reflect there is a lot of fear today.

California, by the way, in September of last year thanks to legislative action, became one of two states to outlaw book bans in public schools.

Book bans speak volumes.

Especially today, 24 plus years beyond when some futurists in the 1980s predicted libraries would be obsolete and printed books superfluous.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com

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4240 book ban tries, not bad for media that futurists said would be dead by now - Manteca Bulletin

This is bad. Sinking Feeling

A new study has discovered that a staggering number of Chinese cities are sinking into the Earth.

According to the study, which was conducted by a team of over 50 Chinese scientists using radar observations and published this week in the journal Science, almost half of China's 82 major cities are experiencing rapid subsidence.

Subsidence, or the scientific term for the Earth's surface effectively sinking in on itself, is a serious issue. Not only does it present obvious infrastructure and safety dangers, but as NPR notes, sinking land is also known to expedite the problem of already-rising coastlines. And by these researchers' estimates, the extreme sinking observed in China could mean that about a quarter of the nation's coastal regions are below sea level by the year 2120.

Combine the problem of sinking cities with China's massive population, and as the researchers point out in their study, you have a recipe for a human and infrastructural disaster.

"Even a small portion of subsiding land in China," the researchers write, "could therefore translate into a substantial threat to urban life."

Subsidence isn't just a problem in China. Countries worldwide are experiencing a concerning level of land sink, and in January, a satellite-based study revealed that US' major East Coast population centers are similarly caving into the Earth, as are gulf cities like New Orleans and Houston.

"This is a big problem," Robert Nicholls, a professor of climate adaptation at the University of East Anglia in England who wasn't involved with the study, told NPR. "The scale is large."

"Without doubt," he added, this new study "brings home that this is not a local problem. This is a national, or even international, problem."

But while land sinking is an international problem, cities in Asia might be uniquely at risk. As Nicholls reportedly told NPR, Asian cities are commonly constructed on river deltas, which are particularly susceptible to subsidence. The Indonesian capital city of Jakarta, for example, was built on a river delta and is sinking beneath sea level at a deeply alarming rate.

In short, subsidence is a growing threat. And while mitigating subsidence is a complicated fix, this latest study highlights just how important those mitigation efforts might just be for protecting land for future generations.

"Our results underscore the necessity of enhancing protective measures," the researchers write, "to mitigate potential damages from subsidence."

More on subsidence: Satellites Show the East Coast Is Sinking

Read more:
Chinese Cities Are Sinking Into the Earth, Scientists Find - Futurism

Saturday 20 April 2024 8:00 am

Bill Quinn is a so-called futurist who is using technology to improve his performance in sporting events such as the London Marathon, which is this year sponsored by tech company Tata Consultancy Services.

First thing in the morning, most people reach for their phones. Not Bill Quinn though. Instead, he checks his rest and recovery data to gauge how well-rested he is from the previous days activities.

Quinn is a so-called futuristsomeone fascinated by exploring predictions about the future.

His particular focus is on the future of running. Having completed the New York marathon last year, hes now gearing up to join the 50,000 runners tackling the 26-mile course across London this weekend.

During these runs, Quinn, who considers himself an average runner, constantly monitors his progress using various devices. These include an Apple Watch on one wrist, a rest and recovery monitor on the other, and a glucose monitor measuring blood sugar levels on one arm.

I wanted to experiment with whether consumer-grade wearables could create a digital twin of myself, he explained.

Early on in his experiment, which has spanned a number of months, Quinn took the data from his devices and cobbled it all together in a spreadsheet. I could see what my average heart rate was when I was on this run, but then also what was my glucose level during that one, he said.

The point of stitching all this information together was to create a digital twin of himself. Using this modelling, Quinn could see exactly what he needed to do to enhance his athletic performance.

Its all about understanding whats going on in that environment, he explained, and then also being able to do scenario planning to plan and try out different scenarios to optimise for the future.

The 50-something-year-old estimated he spends around $1,000 per year on various health and fitness subscriptions.

It was really just kind of an experiment to understand whats available to the average person in terms of a digital twin, Quinn said.

By comparison, American tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson is spending millions a year improving his fitness levels in an attempt to reverse the ageing process.

Although Quinn currently uses technology mostly for sports, it has heightened his awareness of diet. But long-distance running events like the London Marathon are just one of the circumstances where the concept of digital twin technology can make a difference.

Quinn also envisions a future where data will play a significant role in healthcare.

For example, health metrics could be continuously monitored and automatically shared between patients and doctors, rather than relying on sporadic annual check-ups.

This data-driven approach can detect and address conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer early on, significantly reducing healthcare costs and enhancing overall wellness.

I think theres a huge opportunity in the medical field for this data to be leveraged, he said.

See the article here:
How one 'futurist' is using tech to run the London marathon faster - City A.M.

NEW YORK, USA, 23 April, 2024,-/African Media Agency (AMA)/-The Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) proudly announces thedistinguished honoreesof the Class of 2024 in theGlobal Top 100 Futurists Edition onWorld Creativity and Innovation Day.

Embracing the ethos of recognition and aligning with the 1st pillar of theInternational Decade for People of African Descent, MIPAD shines a spotlight onindividuals,organizations, andgovernmentswho have exemplified exceptional leadership in advancing people of African descent worldwide.

Kamil Olufowobi, Founder & Chairman of MIPAD, emphasized that these global lists signify the organizations ongoing commitment to showcasing the positive impact made by individuals of African descent across the globe. We are dedicated to amplifying the diverse narratives of the global Black community and illuminating the countless untold stories of our challenges and triumphs, spanning every corner of the world and reaching even the highest echelons of influence, he remarked.

MIPAD extends heartfelt congratulations to the exceptional individuals recognized in the Class of 2024. Their remarkable achievements and unwavering dedication serve as beacons of inspiration for humanity.

TheClass of 2024 Global Top 100 Futurists Editionencompasses three distinct categories:Afrofuturism & Creatives, Futurists, andInnovators & Changemakers.Recognizing individuals who have made remarkable contributions to shaping the future and pioneering innovative solutions within their respective fields.

Finalists are highlighted within three category:

AFROFUTURISM & CREATIVES:This category celebrates individuals who explore the intersection of African culture, science fiction, and art, shaping imaginative futures and pushing creative boundaries.

FUTURISTS:Recognizing those at the forefront of technological advancement, this category honors individuals who innovate in fields such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and finance, shaping the future of technology and society.

INNOVATORS & CHANGEMAKERS:Highlighting individuals who drive change through groundbreaking sustainable practices, and transformative initiatives, this category acknowledges those who are shaping a better future for all.

Join us in celebrating the 2024 MIPAD Honorees for their transformative contributions to societies worldwide, their resilience, and their indomitable spirit in overcoming adversity. BRAVO!

Please visitwww.mipad.org/classof2024to see complete list.

We look forward to hosting all of our Honorees, past and present, in New York City for Most Influential 100Recognition Week 2024 (RW2024) September 20th 22ndfollowing the opening of the 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York City #UNGA

For congratulatory ads, sponsorship & speaking opportunities, please contactinfo@mipad.orgor call +1 917 541 8394or+1 917 256 9940(New York)

Distributed byAfrican Media Agency (AMA)on behalf of MIPAD.

About Most Influential People of African Descent(MIPAD)

The Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD), is a global civil society initiative in support of the International Decade for People of African Descent, proclaimed by United Nations General Assembly resolution 68/237, to be observed from 2015 to 2024. MIPAD identifies high achievers of African descent in public and private sectors from all around the world as a progressive network of relevant actors to join together in the spirit of recognition, justice and development.

MIPADs Global Most Influential 100 Publications2023|2022|2021|2020|2019|2018|2017

The post MIPAD announces the Global Top 100 Futurists Edition on World Creativity and Innovation Day appeared first on African Media Agency.

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MIPAD announces the Global Top 100 Futurists Edition on World Creativity and Innovation Day - Africa.com