By Jerome C. Glenn, Director of the Millennium Project, Dec. 7, 2010
The UN Climate Change Conference (COP-16) is an information feeding frenzy! Environmentalists from around the world shared information, contacts, strategies, not waiting for governments to make agreements – although hoping for a US-China agreement.
As you know, the official conference is in still process. I was only there December 1-3 at the invitation of Conagua (Mexico’s water authority) to speak on a water and climate change side (non-official) panel at the suggestion of UNESCO. My trip was sponsored by the UN World Meteorological Organization. The Millennium Project is helping to conduct research for the UN World Water Scenarios under UNESCO’s leadership.
Also on the panel were Catherin Cosgrove (Millennium Project Canadian Node and part of the UN Water Scenarios research team), Gilberto Gallopin (part of the UN Water Scenarios research team and co-author of the World Water Scenarios ten years ago), David Groves (presented Robust Decision Making methodology from the RAND Corporation – one of the chapters in Futures Research Methodology Version 3.0), and Dale Rothman (Univ. of Denver’s Pardee Center with the International Futures computer model that The Millennium Project collaborates with in producing national comparative SOFI’s as explained in Chapter 2 of the 2010 State of the Future).
I stressed the need for Conagua to create a collective intelligence for water beginning in Mexico and then growing to a global water collective intelligence as suggested in the Technology Paper for the UN World Water Scenarios (this and the other 9 papers on water scenarios drivers will soon be available) and fresh water saving approaches by shifting from fresh to saltwater agriculture as much as possible and producing pure meat without growing animals.
All the best,
Jerome C. Glenn