Today’s Butterfly Effect is Tomorrow’s Trouble
Amid reports of sex scandals, lone-wolf terrorists and Middle East beheadings, it’s easy to miss small events. But they sometimes carry messages far larger than those in the headlines.
Ingenuity Gap
The End of Ingenuity
Having to search farther and longer for our resources isn’t the only new hurdle we face. Climate change could also constrain growth. A steady stream of evidence now indicates that the planet is warming quickly and that the economic impact on agriculture, our built environment, ecosystems and human health could, in time, be very large.
Ingenuity Theory: Can Humankind Create a Sustainable Civilization?
People don’t like to even think about their values, let alone change them. So confronting and changing our values, I’m convinced, will be our greatest challenge of all.
A conversation with the Rt. Honourable Paul Martin about the Internet and the revitalization of democracy
A conversation with the Rt. Honourable Paul Martin and Thomas Homer-Dixon about the Internet and the revitalization of democracy
Interview conducted by Ted Rutland of the webzine “Uncommon Good” on the subject of The Ingenuity Gap
Interview Conducted by Ted Rutland of “Uncommon Good” (Webzine) on the subject of The Ingenuity Gap.
Remarks at the Governor General’s Literary Awards Ceremony
What am I trying to say in The Ingenuity Gap? What are the book’s key points?
Most generally, the book argues that in many aspects of our lives we’re producing immense problems for ourselves far faster than we’re solving them. We’re embedded in a set of enormously complex, tightly interlinked systems — economic, political, technological, and ecological. We don’t really understand how these systems work, so we can’t manage them effectively.
The Ingenuity Gap in a Fragmented World
This morning I’m going to talk about “The Ingenuity Gap in a Fragmented World.” I’ll ask whether humanity can meet the ever more complex and fast-paced challenges it’s creating for itself.
A World That Turns Too Fast
In the last century, our population on this planet has quadrupled, and most of us now live in cities. At the same time, new technologies – from antibiotics to jet planes to the internet – have vastly extended our power as individuals, groups, and societies.
Resource Scarcity and Innovation: Can Poor Countries Attain Endogenous Growth?
Edward Barbier and Thomas Homer-Dixon | Endogenous growth models have revived the debate over the role of technological innovation in economic growth and development. The consensus view is that institutional and policy failures prevent poor countries from generating or using new technological ideas to reap greater economic opportunities. However, this view omits the important contribution of natural-resource degradation and depletion to institutional instability
The Ingenuity Gap: Can Poor Countries Adapt to Resource Scarcity?
As human population and material consumption increase in coming decades, scarcities of natural resources will increase in some regions. Will societies be able to adapt?