Life as we have know it can’t be sustained in the 21 century

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Written by Jimmie Burroughs Email to a friend

Researchers at J, W. Forrester’s institute at MIT presented a new study that says that the world could suffer from “global economic collapse” and “precipitous population decline” if there is a continued consumption of the world’s resources at the current rate.

An article from Smithsonian Magazine quotes Australian physicist Graham Turner, “the world is on track for disaster. There is a very clear warning bell being rung here,” Turner said. “We are not on a sustainable trajectory.”

There is little doubt that the present world is facing overwhelming problems, and if there are not some big changes, things are going to spin out of control. With an ever-increasing population, and the increasing demand for all types of goods, particularly food and pure water, the world as we know it will be unsustainable in the not too distant future. Making the necessary changes, considering the scarcity of energy and natural resources is going to be a tremendous challenge. However, the purpose of this paper is to discuss how an abundant lifestyle, even in the light of present dismal circumstances and dire future predictions, can be possible to all in the future.

Jesus said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”, John 10:10. Some would interpret that to mean that Jesus was talking only about spiritual abundance. That would be equivalent to saying that Jesus was only concerned about the spiritual needs of his followers. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus had compassion for the multitudes that followed him, and performed miracles to feed them when they were hungry, feeding more than 5,000 at one time. He also healed all manner of disease and raised the dead to life. Jesus was concerned about meeting the physical needs of people as well as their spiritual needs. Those also should be our top concerns today.

We live in a world where nearly a billion people do not have enough food to eat, or enough pure water to drink, nor adequate health care. It is estimated that over 5 million children a year die from issues related to malnutrition. Five of the greatest world problems we face are Food production, clean water, health care, sustainable energy and education. There is a lot being done to solve these five problems, but will it happen fast enough? The world population now stands at 7 billion, and it will take only a few years to hit the 9 billion mark.

*Exponential technology is growing at a never before pace and promises great hope, but it will take more than technology. It will take many concerned people willing to invest, not only money, but also themselves to help create a better world.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, two of the richest men in the world, started a pledge club. They pledged to give away half of their fortunes to help create a better world, and the list now has grown to 69 of the super rich. The super rich are not the only ones who can help to change our world. Many others and I support organizations like “Compassion International” that are providing food, clothing and education for poor children throughout the third world. There are only a handful of the super-rich, but there is an army of regular folks who could change the world if they had a mind to do so. Sadly, according to the 80/20 Pareto principle, it will probably be the willing few who make the difference.

Food Production

The future is going to require huge changes in how we produce food in order to meet the growing demands. Exponential Technology is constantly providing new and better ways as to how we do things. For example, food production has increased exponentially in the last few decades because of improved farming methods, but today that has leveled off. With farm-able land decreasing and demand for food increasing, it will take far more in coming years to satisfy the needs. A concept,today,is in the developmental stages that could be the answer. It is a concept that has been around for over a 100 years, but is just now coming together and being developed. It is called vertical farming.

It reduces the amount of land needed by 80%, the amount of water by 90%, the amount of pesticides by a 100%, does no harm to the environment, requires no transportation, and produces 15 to 20 times more food per acre. 150 acres will produce, as much food as 2,400 acres of regular farming and food can be organically grown.

Vertical farming is farming inside in high-rise buildings with a controlled environment suitable to produce crops year around, using hydroponics and aeroponics. The first vertical farm is being built in Chicago, Illinois; others are being constructed in large cities around the world.

The architecture of the vertical farm is a circular high-rise building with each floor consisting of about 5 acres. Its circular design better enables light to enter the center of the building. The energy needed to power the heating and air-conditioning is provided by a huge circular solar disk at the top of the building, which follows the sun’s trajectory. The windows that make up the skin of the building are specially coated to allow rainwater to flow downward into collectors to be used for agriculture. The base floor of the building can be used for aquaculture, producing 100,000 fish per year, and the fish feces is then used for fertilizer for plants. Thirty floors or more could be used for the vertical farm and remaining floors could be used for office space or residential to offset the expense of maintaining the vertical farm. Water is filtered and sterilized from sewage or collected from rainwater.

Food is raised using nutrient enriched water instead of soil. Plants are immersed in water, hydroponics, or hung in the air and fed with a mist of water, aeroponics. Today food is shipped from around the world to supply the needs of just one city. With vertical farming, food is raised right in the city where it is used. By reducing the transportation and use of farm equipment to near zero,, the use of fossil fuel will drop dramatically producing fewer pollutants in the environment.

Pure water

With the increase in the production of food and other goods, more and more fresh water is needed, but there is less and less available. Available drinking water is one of the greatest issues worldwide. Every year 2.2 million children in developing countries die from drinking impure water. It is estimated that 135 million people will die before 2020 because of drinking unsafe water.

A great effort is being made to provide safe water, but there is still a long ways to go. Dean Kamen, a physicist, discovered a way to purify water from any source including salt water, chemical laden water, or even water from a latrine. His invention, about the size of a small refrigerator, can purify up to 250 gallons of water per day. It is operated by an engine that can be powered by most any source of fuel, even cow dung. Karmen named his invention “slingshot” after the slingshot of David that brought down Goliath, the giant. Presently the Coca-Cola bottling company is distributing these units, and its companion power source, throughout the developing world. The cost of both the unit and its power source is around $5,000, and it is capable of providing pure water for an entire small village.

This alone, however, will not solve the water problem. There is still a need for drilling wells and piping water to where it is needed. Clean drinking water alone could save the lives of the 2.2 million children who die each year from drinking polluted water.

Health Care

Health-care is one of the most pressing needs that face us today. Health-care cost is rising at the rate of 8% each year. This alone will bankrupt the government in the next few years if it is not curbed. Part of the problem is diagnostics. The number of expensive diagnostic tests that are run each year for the average person can be super expensive.

LOC (Lab on A Chip) is an emerging technology now being developed that will drastically reduce the cost of diagnostics. LOC is a hand held device the size of a mobile phone that will perform multiple tests on body fluids (urine, sputum or a drop of blood). When fully developed, it will enable doctors, nurses or an individual to conduct as many as hundreds of tests on the spot, thus saving untold millions of dollars.

Closely related to the LOC is Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize, a handheld mobile phone size device that will be capable of diagnosing a patient far quicker and better than a team of board certified professionals. Qualcomm, the wireless provider, and The X Prize Foundation teamed up on May 10, 2011, offering a 10 million dollar reward to the first team that develops the device.

Malaria is still one of the leading causes of death among children in the developing world. A cure for malaria has been found in nano silver sol technology, but the problem of producing it and getting it into the hands of those who need it is still lacking.

Bill Gates has contributed 2 billion dollars, the largest single donation ever given, to develop vaccines for the prevention of disease. This along with the things mentioned above offers the abundance in health-care we need to solve present and future health-care problems. In addition, this does not even take into consideration all the other emerging biotechnological advances on the drawing board. Many of these things will be available in the near future.

Sustainable Energy

There is still a lot of energy left in the form of fossil fuel. Nevertheless, other than being environmentally unfriendly, fossil fuel is an unsustainable energy that is declining each year and is already short of supplying the world’s daily needs. It is also an unstable supply that could be interrupted at the whim of OPEC nations that control the bulk of oil reserves. As I write this article, gas prices are on the rise because of Iran’s threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, which would stop 20 percent of the world’s oil exports. Such a move by Iran would be illegal and unsuccessful, but the attempt alone could produce a serious conflict that would threaten the continued flow of oil.

Much of the world,today,is dependent on OPEC to supply their energy needs, and this is scary when you consider the instability of OPEC and the fact that the world economy is dependent on oil, as well as food production. The handwriting is plainly on the wall—-there must be a dependable new sustainable and environmentally friendly energy supply, and we don’t have all day, so to speak, to find, develop and deploy it.

Presently the greatest emphasis for alternative energy is being focused on solar, biofuels (not ethanol), and IV nuclear, the new safe form of nuclear energy that produces no hazardous radioactive waste and can withstand a 10 point scale earthquake. While all three have tremendous potential, solar energy offers the greatest hope. There is 5 times more solar energy each day than what is presently needed to supply the entire world’s energy needs. The cost of solar energy is dropping at the rate of 5 to 6 percent each year, and the capacity is increasing at the rate of 30 percent per year. If this trend continues, solar energy will supply the entire world’s need for energy in 18 years. The problem of storage is being solved with a new type of non-lithium battery, which uses ubiquitous earth materials instead of the rare earth materials presently needed for lithium batteries. The story does not end there; the supply of solar energy will continue to expand exponentially, and produce an abundance, which could reduce the cost, and fuel a robust economy, as well as supply clean air and water to the entire world.

Education

During the industrial revolution in the 1800s, traditional education was established which no longer meets the needs of the technological world of today. There must be a dramatic paradigm shift for education in order to provide the survival skills needed for future generations. The present emphasis of education is on conformity to set standards that are no longer viable. The shift needs to be toward relevancy to meet future needs.

The emphasis on the so-called “3 Rs” is still very much a part of the technological age, but the waste is on non-relevant subject matter that many students find boring. The need is for education that demands creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving.

We have at our disposal the greatest educational tool ever known to man, the computer. The present need is to discard those procedures and standards that are no longer relevant and adopt new techniques which emphasise digital learning. What we teach, the methods we use, and the purpose we are striving for are some of the primary changes in education to be considered. The present emphasis is primarily on rote memorization of facts (which Google now provides with a click of the mouse) and conforming to set of outdated standards. What is needed is an emphasis on survival skills, creative thinking and problem solving that will complement the new world of technology.

When learning includes survival skills, in addition to creativity and problem solving, it becomes exciting and addictive. The video game producers have tapped into the way the human brain operates and have developed video games which are challenging, and which require creativity and problem solving in a way, which kids become addicted, and are willing to pay as much a $50 per game. If this same methodology can be incorporated into our educational system, it will bring great results. Although isolated, it is already being done in some areas.

There is a shortage of over 2 million teachers in North America alone, and the shortage in the developing world is frightening. Better methods of learning with fewer teachers are of the essence. Research has uncovered that children in developing countries who have never been shown any computer technology are able to pick it up on their own and learn through self-instruction. The concept of self-education coupled with a supportive coach has brought about amazing results even when the coach was not a qualified teacher, or even knew the material, but only served as an encourager.

Conclusion:

The above is only some of the ways that exponential technology and the concerted effort of a few are helping to open up an abundant future. Other technologies such as 3D printing, nano manufacturing, and biotechnology are also going to open up a future like the one we have never seen before. The abundance that Jesus talked about is available, if we are ready to receive it. I believe the first and greatest need is to recognize our spiritual needs and turn to God for them, and then devote ourselves to providing what help we can to others in our world.

If you are interested in being a part of building a better world, I urge you to join others and me that are helping to provide for the needs of underprivileged children around the world through Compassion International. Even if you are just able to help one child, it will go a long ways when many together are involved.

*Suggested reading: Abundance by Peter H. Diamandis & Steven Kotler-Amazon

* Exponential technology means a rapid increase over time in technology. In other words, we do not expect a 100 years increase in the 21 century, but a 20,000-year increase at today’s present rate. It is impossible to imagine the change that will take place in the next 100 years.

The following story is an excellent example of how exponential growth works: “The story is about the inventor of chess and his patron, the emperor of China. In response to the emperor’s offer of a reward for his new beloved game, the inventor asked for a single grain of rice on the first square, two on the second square, four on the third, and so on. The Emperor quickly granted this seemingly benign and humble request, not understanding exponential growth. By the time, it reached 63 doublings it had totaled 18 million trillion grains of rice. At ten grains of rice per square inch, this requires rice fields covering twice the surface area of the Earth; oceans included.”

For further reference:

APA:MIT researchers predict ‘global economic collapse’ by … (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002517984_br

Chicago: MIT researchers predict ‘global economic collapse’ by .., http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002517984_br (accessed March 10, 2014).