FUTURES OF NATURE AND ECOSYSTEMS

Greentech is hot, and possibly overheating. Surging green investments in still-to-be-proven technologies may overinflate this market bubble. Much depends on whether greentech’s issues can be efficiently addressed and whether governments will step in – and step up funding – if investor money dries up.

In our article series, we zoom in on some specific areas and industries in the world that will emerge after the COVID-19 pandemic. This third instalment is based on an analysis by Futures Platform, with insight from the founder and chairman of energy company St1 and climate change advocate Mika Anttonen and Futures Platform’s Senior Foresight Analyst Max Stucki.

The COVID-19 has shaken the lives of everyone, but the crisis will be overcome. However, economic, political and social changes are unavoidable. For this reason, it is important to anticipate the world after Coronavirus to ease the recovery.

Facial recognition of humans is no news anymore, but a less known fact is that technology has been recently successfully used on animals. In addition to better management and care practices, facial recognition could also help to improve our relationship with animals.

About 90% of the world's commodities are carried by the international shipping industry, annually. Liner shipping also transports around USD 4 trillion of goods yearly. There are more than 8,000 thousand of ports in over 200 countries worldwide. Here are their current challenges and future trends.

For many, Africa may seem like a continent with a sealed fate. But Africa is a vast continent, replete with nations growing and developing rapidly. Despite challenges that continue to assail it, Africa seems set to play an increasing role in world affairs. The question is, will African nations be able to follow the example of many Asian nations and do it sooner rather than later?

Microplastics, very small plastic fragments, less than 5 millimetres in length, can be found in several places. And there’s a lot of it. A 2015 study showed that there are between 93 and 236 metric tons of microplastics in the world’s oceans. They have also been found in freshwater ecosystems, in the soil, and even in the air. Even more worrying, they have been found inside a lot of animal species.

China has had a bad reputation with regard to the environment for many years. But understanding that looking out for the environment has benefits both internationally and domestically; the country has been changing. In fact, some may even argue that China is, at the moment, leading the cleantech revolution - ahead of the United States and other Western countries.

Many years ago, in movies, we used to see someone have their eye scanned to enter a vault or put their fingerprint on a pad to open a futuristic door. But these once futuristic biometric technologies have now started to work their way into our every-day lives. Are microchips next?

Plastic. It has become so common place, most of us cannot imagine day to day life without it. Since its invention in 1907, it has become one of the most essential materials for mankind. However, it has not come without its downsides. The main and most pressing for humanity being the immense amount of waste.

The majority of scientists, according to NASA, believe that humans are responsible for the rise of climate temperature. The main culprit, it is argued, is carbon dioxide, better known as CO2, and its increasing levels in the atmosphere, now at their highest in over half a million years. Could we make better use of this CO2?

In 2013, Dr. Mark Post and his team at Maastricht University created the first “cultured” burger in the world. Made from muscle-specific stem cells from real cows and later cultured into fibers of muscle tissue thrown together to form a patty, the burger was fully grown in a laboratory. Its cost? US$ 331,000, making it the most expensive burger in the world. Billionaire and Google co-founder Sergey Brin paid the bill.

Mass death of bees has led to loss of productivity in farmed crops as they do not pollinate the way they used to. To bee or not to bee is ecologically a larger question than this. Recent studies show that a chemical cocktail from farming including pesticides and insecticides has spread to wild flora as well. It is possible that future farming will have to become organic to continue.

A large ice berg twice the size of Wales is expected to break off from the Antarctica. Ice Bergs calve off from glaciers occasionally. The concern is whether this one to break off from Larsen C Ice Shelf will mean that the glacier will start to retreat. Rising sea levels may be a reality sooner than predicted due to record warm years. Rapidly melting Greenland ice suggests a point of no return.

Stanford University researchers have developed a semiconductor that is flexible and biodegradable. Made of cellulose and non toxic materials, this invention could be a solution to electronic waste.

Festo presents OctopusGribber, a robotic “hand” which mimics the multi suction cup tentacle of the octopus. How Industrial robots grab objects with “pliers” or single suction cups has prevented them from replacing human hands some tasks on production lines. Biomimicry in engineering may bring forward new innovations that enable robots to bypass manual touch.

Going home at the end of the day is something most of us take for granted. However, that is a luxury that not all people have.

We are no strangers to refugees on this planet. For as long as humans have been around, there have been people who have been pushed from their homes or countries for political, social, or economic reasons.

However, there is a chance that we might have to brace for the largest migration of refugees the earth has ever seen.