Phi Beta Iota: This is highly debatable, especially when you separate the Taliban and other legitimate indigenous insurgents from Al Qaeda, something the US Government was incapable of doing until a year ago.
Jerome C. Glenn co-founded and directs the Millennium Project, a leading global participatory think tank supported by international organizations, governments, corporations, and NGOs, which produces the internationally recognized State of the Future annual reports for the past 14 years.
A review of the trends of the 28 variables used in The Millennium Project’s global State of the Future Index provides a score card on humanity’s performance in addressing the most important challenges. (See Box 1.)
An international Delphi panel selected over a hundred indicators of progress or regress for the 15 Global Challenges in Chapter 1. Variables were then chosen that had at least 20 years of reliable historical data. The resulting 28 variables were submitted to an international panel selected by The Millennium Project Nodes to forecast the best and worst value for each variable in 10 years. The results were integrated into the State of the Future Index’s 10-year projection. Chapter 2 presents a summary of this research. SOFIs can also be created for countries or sectors.
Where are we winning?
· Access to water
· Literacy rate
· Life expectancy at birth
· Poverty $1.25 a day
· Infant mortality
· Wars
· HIVprevalence
· Internetusers
· GDP/capita
· Women in parliaments
· School enrollment, secondary
· Energy efficiency
· Population growth
· Undernourishment prevalence
· Nuclear proliferation
Where are we losing?
· Total debt
· Unemployment
· Income inequality
· Ecological footprint / biocapacity ratio
· GHG emissions
· Terrorist attacks
· Voter turnout
Where there is no significant change or change is not clear?
· Corruption
· Freedom rights
· Electricity from renewables
· Forest lands
· R&D expenditures
· Physicians per capita
From the 9/11 attacks to waterboarding to drone strikes, relations between the United States and the Middle East seem caught in a downward spiral. And all too often, the Central Intelligence Agency has made the situation worse. But this crisis was not a historical inevitability—far from it.
NB: If John Kerry had an Open Source Agency, he would be vastly better informed and much more effective.
This is likely to change all our lives, and is an appallingly bad decision. The American courts are now so stacked in favor of corporate interests they are warping the culture in profound ways. Let us hope this decision is appealed and over-turned, or that Congress changes the laws to assure net neutrality, or the FCC gets enough public pressure to overcome the industry and serve the interests of the people . It ! requires a significant public outcry. And since the corporate media is hardly covering the story, since it so powerfully affects their corporate masters few even seem to know this has happened.
The destruction of the bees is now beginning to affect agriculture, as this report makes clear. This story is going to keep growing. I just hope it isn't too late. Because if it is humanity has a real problem.
http://www.truthtalktunes.com/ – The Dopest Conscious Hip-Hop 24/7!! You can also tune in on Android and i-OS! An investigation into the long-obscured mystery of dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a molecule found in nearly every living organism and considered the most potent psychedelic on Earth.
This month the US Congress could pass legislation that would make sure that complex trade agreements favored by multinational corporations – like the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) – would be pushed through Congress with little debate and little information provided to the public. This so-called “fast-track” authority – and the trade agreements it is designed to facilitate – would seriously undermine what remains of US democracy. We invite you to act on this matter soon as your conscience dictates.
Dear friends,
In my blog post The rapid growth of serious responses to climate disruption I mentioned the movement to protest the secretly negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) that could have profound impacts on democracy, on public health and welfare, and on the fate of the planet.
