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Felix Interview on Inside Ideas on the new book Tomorrow's People and New Technology

I am delighted to welcome back Professor Felix Dodds as my guest on the Inside Ideas podcast. The episode can be found here.

An Adjunct Professor at the University of North Carolina and an Associate Fellow at the Tellus Institute, he was listed one of the world’s top 25 environmentalists ahead of his time in 2011. The same year, he chaired the United Nations DPI 64th NGO conference ‘Sustainable Societies Responsive Citizens’, which put forward the first set of indicative Sustainable Development Goals.

Professor Dodds has also authored or edited over 20 books, including co-writing ‘Negotiating the Sustainable Development Goals’ with Ambassador David Donoghue and Jimena Leiva Roesch, and ‘Only One Earth’, with the father of sustainable development, Maurice Strong.

His latest book ‘Tomorrow’s People and New Technology′ explores the impact the Fourth Industrial Revolution will have on peoples’ lives by 2030 and asks how technologies, including AI, biotechnology, IoT, and big data will come to shape every aspect of it.

“One of the things we need to do is to look at 2030 and to then look back,” he said. “What is 2030 going to be like and the book indicates some of it. What are the policy implications now, in 2022, 2023 that we need to address. What are the things that need to be done to advance many of the green technologies?”

He continued: “We list a number of what we call the jobs of the future: garbage designers, where you’re taking garbage and making it into things that people might want; or a personal data broker; weather modification police; or classroom avatar manager. As I think some of the interesting things in the classroom will be the use of virtual reality and hopefully some of these tools will make our students more knowledgeable, more understanding of culture as we move forward.”

In books predicting what a future defined by emerging technologies might look like, it is the worst case scenarios that often take centre stage but not in this one.

“The book was trying to make the future not seem scary,” Professor Dodds said. “There are so many books out there that talk about the technology advance and it being a scary world, and talk about the challenges as opposed to the positives.”

He added “We’re trying to help people to think ‘wow — so this is what my kitchen would look like, this is what my bathroom would look like. To ask: what would travel look like in 2030?’ What would entertainment look like? What about fashion? It may be that you’re 3D printing your fashion at home, or it may be that you decide to send to ask for something to be delivered by Amazon, or the equivalent, the next day and there’s a 3D printer in the shopping mall that prints out clothes for you — that’s less waste and transport than if you were getting it from possibly India, or China, or Vietnam and having it brought over. Less waste is good because we need to conserve, and we need to create much more of a circular economy for all of our things.”

Sound good?

Take a deep dive with me and Professor Dodds for more on the exciting futures that can be unlocked by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

 

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Pod cast on travelling around in 2030 from the new book Tomorrow's People and New Technology

Tomorrows People and New Technology is now out and available at all good bookshops or directly from Routledge here. Written by Felix DoddsCarolina Duque Chopitea and Ranger Ruffins This podcast is about travelling around in 2030 and can listened to here.

"No one has written more or provided a larger lens through which we can view the subject of sustainable development than has Felix Dodds, whether alone or in collaboration with very interesting co-authors. Tomorrow’s People and New Technology issues an invitation to consider the future through the 2030 development agenda and the life it might engender. It poses the pertinent questions – How will technology be the primary driver of society, economy and way of life? Will it help us to realize the great value of our humanity? Will we see the technology as our partner in achieving sustainable development? Will its use be equitable in improving quality of life globally so that no-one is left behind? What sort of world do we want and how will technology help bring it into being? These questions are not academic. COVID-19 has accelerated the use of technology and we must answer these questions -now. Agree or disagree with the authors but read their answers."
Ambassador Liz Thompson, Permanent Mission of Barbados to the United Nations

Felix Dodds joins us again for this https://open.spotify.com/episode/0O1Biy8rq2Rmb3rKE6TRVIweek’s episode to discuss everyone’s favorite hobby - travel. We talk about how travel might be more customized and sustainable by 2030. How can big data and the blockchain make travel a better experience for people and the planet? What will be the impact of self-driving transportation, AI, robotics, and augmented reality on travel? Find out on this week’s episode! Felix Dodds is co-author of the new book Tomorrow’s People and New Technology, which we are focusing on in our first seven episodes to imagine what life in 2030 might look like and how the emerging technologies over the next decade fit into the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Book Description 

As witness a series of social, political, cultural, and economic changes/disruptions this book examines the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the way emerging technologies are impacting our lives and changing society.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is characterised by the emergence of new technologies that are blurring the boundaries between the physical, the digital, and the biological worlds. This book allows readers to explore how these technologies will impact peoples’ lives by 2030. It helps readers to not only better understand the use and implications of emerging technologies, but also to imagine how their individual life will be shaped by them. The book provides an opportunity to see the great potential but also the threats and challenges presented by the emerging technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, posing questions for the reader to think about what future they want. Emerging technologies, such as robotics, artificial intelligence, big data and analytics, cloud computing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, the Internet of Things, fifth-generation wireless technologies (5G), and fully autonomous vehicles, among others, will have a significant impact on every aspect of our lives, as such this book looks at their potential impact in the entire spectrum of daily life, including home life, travel, education and work, health, entertainment and social life.

Providing an indication of what the world might look like in 2030, this book is essential reading for students, scholars, professionals, and policymakers interested in the nexus between emerging technologies and sustainable development, politics and society, and global governance.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Meesha Brown

Introduction
Felix Dodds, Carolina Duque Chopitea and Ranger Sere Ruffins

1. The History of Industrial Revolutions

2. The World we Live in

3. Home Life

4. Traveling Around

5. Education, Working life and Health

6. Entertainment

7. Social Life

8. Living around the globe

9. Beyond 2030

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Home Life in 2030 - a podcast from Tomorrow's People and New Technology

Tomorrows People and New Technology is now out and available at all good bookshops or directly from Routledge here. Written by Felix DoddsCarolina Duque Chopitea and Ranger Ruffins

"More often than not, we see technology as something that is happening to us--that is, ordinary people are impacted in both positive and malign ways without agency or voice. In addition to helping us understand the scope of emerging technologies, Tomorrow's People and New Technology calls on the reader and individual to be proactive and help shape trends in ways that support the sustainable development agenda and our immediate social lives."
Gavin Power, former Executive Deputy Director, UN Global Compact

Felix Dodds joins us on the podcast this week to help us explore the future of home life. We discuss the emerging technologies that will shake up our living spaces and the roles they play in our lives. We also examine the potential benefits and ramifications — for us and the planet as a whole — that could come with the rise of “smarter” homes. Felix Dodds is co-author of the new book Tomorrow’s People and New Technology, which we are focusing on in our first seven episodes to imagine what life in 2030 might look like and how the emerging technologies over the next decade fit into the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Book description

As we witness a series of social, political, cultural, and economic changes/disruptions this book examines the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the way emerging technologies are impacting our lives and changing society.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is characterised by the emergence of new technologies that are blurring the boundaries between the physical, the digital, and the biological worlds. This book allows readers to explore how these technologies will impact peoples’ lives by 2030. It helps readers to not only better understand the use and implications of emerging technologies, but also to imagine how their individual life will be shaped by them. The book provides an opportunity to see the great potential but also the threats and challenges presented by the emerging technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, posing questions for the reader to think about what future they want. Emerging technologies, such as robotics, artificial intelligence, big data and analytics, cloud computing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, the Internet of Things, fifth-generation wireless technologies (5G), and fully autonomous vehicles, among others, will have a significant impact on every aspect of our lives, as such this book looks at their potential impact in the entire spectrum of daily life, including home life, travel, education and work, health, entertainment and social life.

Providing an indication of what the world might look like in 2030, this book is essential reading for students, scholars, professionals, and policymakers interested in the nexus between emerging technologies and sustainable development, politics and society, and global governance.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Meesha Brown

Introduction
Felix Dodds, Carolina Duque Chopitea and Ranger Sere Ruffins

1. The History of Industrial Revolutions

2. The World we Live in

3. Home Life

4. Traveling Around

5. Education, Working life and Health

6. Entertainment

7. Social Life

8. Living around the globe

9. Beyond 2030

 

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Podcasts for the new book Tomorrow's People and New Technology - Changing How We Live Our Lives

Tomorrow's People and New Technology - Changing How We Live Our Lives By Felix Dodds, Carolina Duque Chopitea, Ranger Ruffins is out on the 14th of  October. 

The theme of the book is looking at 2030 and where we might be in terms of new technology.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is characterized by the emergence of new technologies that are blurring the boundaries between the physical, the digital, and the biological worlds. 

This book allows readers to explore how these technologies will impact peoples’ lives by 2030. It helps readers to not only better understand the use and implications of emerging technologies, but also to imagine how their individual life will be shaped by them. The book provides an opportunity to see the great potential but also the threats and challenges presented by the emerging technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, posing questions for the reader to think about what future they want.

 Emerging technologies, such as robotics, artificial intelligence, big data and analytics, cloud computing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, the Internet of Things, fifth-generation wireless technologies (5G), and fully autonomous vehicles, among others, will have a significant impact on every aspect of our lives, as such this book looks at their potential impact in the entire spectrum of daily life, including home life, travel, education and work, health, entertainment and social life.

Providing an indication of what the world might look like in 2030, this book is essential reading for students, scholars, professionals, and policymakers interested in the nexus between emerging technologies and sustainable development, politics and society, and global governance.

To supplement the publication of the book  we are celebrating the launch of Sustainable Society Cafe, Carolina Duque joins us on the podcast to walk us through the first three industrial revolutions humanity has experienced up to this point and how the Fourth Industrial Revolution of today compares. 

We discuss what the First through the Third Industrial Revolution meant for the world and the lives of ordinary people and how the Fourth Industrial Revolution might either make or break our global economy and our environment. Carolina Duque is co-author of the new book Tomorrow’s People and New Technology, which we are focusing on in our first seven episodes to imagine what life in 2030 might look like and how the emerging technologies over the next decade fit into the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

 

 

 

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Podcast interview with Felix Dodds - on the climate change

An interview by  Lauren Eastwood with Felix Dodds on 'Cooperadio Radio' on the upcoming Glasgow Climate Summit. What are the issues? How do stakeholders engage?  Interview with Felix Dodds - Cooperadio invites people on a journey through the fascinating world of global cooperation research. Episode 7  is the one which Felix speaks on. The episodes features voices, opinions and research that address the multitude of global challenges that we are dealing with as inhabitants of a deeply globalized world - from the climate emergency, the challenges of global migration, the multitude of old and new conflicts, all the way to the digital revolution. All these transboundary problems have one thing in common: They cannot be overcome by singular actors from nations states alone and therefore call for global cooperation!
 
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Code Red for Humanity and the Planet

An article for Inter Press Service News By Felix Dodds and Chris Spence republished here.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is absolutely right to call the latest UN climate report a “Code Red for Humanity.” Without immediate and serious action, we are condemning future generations to a dismal future.

Already, we have wasted too much time. Next year, it will be half a century since first UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm warned us of the risks to our environment from human activities.  More than 30 years have passed since the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its first report (the latest report is its sixth). Even that first report in 1990 warned of humanity’s impact on greenhouse gas concentrations and planetary warming.  Again, our actions over subsequent decades have been woefully inadequate.

This year has given us the most vivid insights into what the new world will look like, whether it is droughts and fires in California or the latest tragic wildfires in Greece, as temperatures get so hot that even a small spark sets them off.

The IPCC report also looks at heat waves. If we were to permit a 2 °C increase in temperature, then the record temperatures recorded recently in the United States and unexpectedly in Canada would become 14 times more likely to happen again in future, both there and elsewhere.

There has already been an increase in the number and the strength of. Flooding is happening more often and again in places not expected as rain falls in a different way to how it did before These heavy downpours, most recently in Germany, show that the flood defenses were built for a different type of downpour and will required huge infrastructural overhauls if this is to be the new normal.

Then there is the cascading effect if the forests and vegetation have burnt down. When the rain comes again there is now nothing to hold the water back, meaning floods will have a greater impact on already devastated communities.

The key here is water. The UN’s climate negotiations only added water as a key issue to the negotiations in 2010 due to campaigning by the multi stakeholder efforts of the Water and Climate Coalition. The approach to greenhouse targets missed a huge opportunity to address the key sectors that were either contributing to the problem or would be impacted by it.

No Minor Injuries

Why are so many political leaders either in denial about the need for urgent action, or simply paying it lip service? The current sense of denial is unsettlingly reminiscent of the comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In one painfully funny scene, a mysterious dark knight bars the path of our hero, King Arthur. The two fight and King Arthur expects the knight to stand aside when he cuts off the knight’s arm. But the knight refuses, claiming at first that it is merely a “scratch”. The fight resumes and the knight loses his other arm. Again, he refuses to submit or step aside, claiming it is “just a flesh wound.”

This is where we stand with climate change. Already, we have inflicted great injuries on our planet and we need to respond accordingly. We cannot pretend the globe has just suffered a few minor cuts and scrapes. If our world was the dark knight, you could argue that we have, through our actions, already severed a limb. We must cease our attacks and treat this as a global emergency for our global health. No band aid solution or plastering over the damage will do. Inaction will not cut it.

In a health emergency, time is of the essence. You cannot wait to call an ambulance or try to carry on as normal. If you do, the patient may not survive. The IPCC’s latest report shows we must act immediately and take the strongest action possible.  

A Call to Action

So, what can be done with the UN IPCC’s new warning?

First, those countries that have not yet submitted new Nationally Determined Contribution targets under the UN’s Paris agreement should do so immediately.

Secondly, developed countries should increase their contribution promised in 2015 for funding from $100 billion a year for climate work to at least $200 billion by the Climate Summit in Egypt in 2022.

Thirdly, and even more importantly, governments need to aggressively focus on the corporate sector and its responsibilities. This should include making it a requirement for all companies listed on any Stock Exchange to have to produce their sustainability strategy and their Environmental, Social and Governance Report (ESG) every year. This should be a requirement for remaining on the stock exchange. This should also require them to produce science-based targets to achieve net zero greenhouse gases by 2050. Companies’ voluntary, self-created goals are no longer sufficient.  

Perhaps it is even worth considering having Stock Exchanges publish the total carbon of their members and to start considering them putting a cap on what the Exchange would allow and what their contribution to net zero will be.

Fourthly, the role of local and sub-national governments needs to be supported and enhanced. Actors at the local and regional levels are critical to delivering what we need. They need to be supported to set their own 2030 targets and 2050 net zero strategies. To enable them to achieve this, central governments will need to support them and provide the extra funding. All planning decisions should be based on the new projections of climate change and building in flood plains should stop.

Fifthly, governments should review the impacts on climate change of all existing policies and not proceed unless they are within the strategy to deliver the NDC and the 2030 and 2050 Net Zero strategies. In short, governments need to start incorporating climate change into all of their thinking across all sectors. The problem is too vast, and too urgent, to do otherwise.

Sixthly, all governments need to urgently review their disaster risk reduction strategies ahead of a major UN conference on this subject scheduled for next May in Bali.

At all levels of government we need to review the interlinkages between water, agriculture, energy and climate change to ensure that planning is climate proofed. Without accounting for each of these sectors, the solutions will not be big enough to meet the challenge.

Finally, as voters, taxpayers and citizens, we need to press our political leaders to put climate change at the top of their list of priorities. They need to be reminded that it is not just future generations that will judge them and their policies—we can do so, too.

A Code Red Emergency

We have a decade to turn this around. Already, we have seen global temperatures rise by 1.09 °C. The IPCC suggests we may pass the all-important threshold of 1.5 °C by 2034 to 2040.

In fact, things may be even more pressing. The report that came out on Monday was the “summary for policymakers”, which means it was a negotiated document with both progressive nations and more climate sceptic and cautious countries negotiating the exact wording.  While the findings were certainly scientifically sound, it is quite likely the language could have been—and probably should have been—even more urgent. We would do well to remember what some politicians have said over the last few years; if they have denied the science in the past then now is surely the time for them make way for others who are willing to give this issue the weight it so clearly deserves.

 

Felix Dodds is an Adjunct Professor at the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina where he is a Principal Investigator for the Belmont funded Re-Energize project. He co-coordinated the Water and Climate Change Coalition at the Climate Negotiations (2007-2012).  His new book is Tomorrow’s People and New Technology: Changing How We Live Our Lives (October 2021).

Chris Spence is an environmental consultant, writer and author of the book, Global Warming: Personal Solutions for a Healthy Planet. He is a veteran of many climate summits and other United Nations negotiations over the past three decades.

 

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