Accelerating Technology-Based Growth in Developed, Developing, and Emerging Regions Worldwide - Technopolis: Best Practices for Science and Technology Cities - page 217

First the vision:
I cannot tell any society or culture what to say to its children, but I can tell you what I say
to my own: The world is being flattened and you can't stop it, except at great cost to
human development and to your own future. But we can manage it, for better or worse. If
it is for the better we need a generation of strategic optimists, a generation that wakes up
each morning and not only imagines that things can be better, but also acts on that
imagination.Thomas Freidman, The World is Flat: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux:
Followed by the warning:
Globalization makes the world smaller. It may also make it—or sections of it—richer. It
does not make it more peaceful, or more liberal. Least of all it doesn't make it flat….
Indeed, the coming age could be marked by resource wars, increased religious passions,
and serious environmental limits. John Gray, New York Review of Books, ''Critique: The
World is Round,'' August, 2005.
In short, there are numerous serious challenges to a ''Flat World'' including
national politics, religion, global economies, and regional quality of life issues,
especially concerning natural resources and in particular fossil fuels although
water, food, and other natural resource challenges are also of central importance
and concern. As stated by the US Energy Information Administration, absent
mandatory global agreements on capping greenhouse gases, etc. (AAS, A6, June
26, 2008):
• World energy demand will grow 50 % during next 2 decades—oil process will
raise to $186/barrel—coal will remain the biggest source of electricity despite
its contribution to global warming
- Emerging economies will see their energy demand grow by 85 %—The
steepest increases in energy use will come from China, India, Middle East,
and Africa
- Global demand for oil will grow nearly one-third more than is consumed
today and coal nearly two-thirds more
- Carbon dioxide flowing into the atmosphere will be 51 % higher than now.
However, with a more optimistic view, Cambridge Energy Research Associates
conclude that markets respond to higher prices with behavioral change, innovation,
and substitution and we have seen the effects of these often beneficial responses
worldwide.
Finally within this mix of critical more macro level considerations, Richard
Florida suggests—that the world is perhaps more ''spiky'' than flat.
Innovative ecosystems matter and there are not many of them—perhaps a few dozen
places worldwide really compete at the cutting edge—economic progress requires that the
peaks grow stronger and taller. But such growth will exacerbate economic and social
disparities that could threaten progress… managing the disparities between the peaks and
valleys worldwide—raising the valleys without shearing off the peaks—will be a top
challenge in the coming decades. Richard Florida,'The World is Spiky,'' Atlantic
Monthly, October 2005.