Entries Tagged as ‘Globalization’

February 29, 2008

Thinking the Future: Kardashev Scales and the possibility of sub-scales

Open Left put up this video today by Michio Kaku on the Kardashev Scale:

Currently, the Earth as a whole  is ranked at roughly a 0.7 on the Kardashev scale. We are not even a Type I civilization yet.
I was very intrigued by Kaku’s discussion of the evolution of structures such as [...]

September 13, 2007

Paul Saffo says 50-50 Chance U.S. Dissolves by Mid-Century

In this fascinating video (found over at the Epicenter Wired blog), futurist (and WEF advisor) Paul Saffo discusses why he believes that there is a 50% probability that the US will disintegrate into city-states or autonomous regions within 50 years.
I’m wondering how Saffo’s projected city-state/autonomous region mapping would overlap with “The Nine Nations of North [...]

August 21, 2007

Rethinking the Logic of Food Miles and Eating Local

Last week, James E. McWilliams did an op-ed in the New York Times title “Food That Travels Well” that got me thinking. For a long time sustainability activists have joined forces with the local food/slow food activists in what has seemed like a mutually beneficial partnership. Now it turns out, according to the article, that [...]

May 24, 2007

Globalization and Homogenization

I was over at Warren Ellis‘ website this morning and came across this video of a Spider Jerusalem rant from Transmetropolitan (which I’m using again for PS 240 this fall). I’m teaching PS 212 Culture and Politics of the Third World this summer, and as I prepare for the globalization portion of that course, this [...]