Quotes from Jeremy Rifkin

democratizing energy.

people who strongly value the pursuit of wealth and possessions report lower psychological well-being than those who are less concerned with such aims.

There is a saying in the Middle East that goes something like this: "My grandfather rode a camel, my father drove a car, I travel on a jet, and my grandchild will ride a camel." Not necessarily. The deserts of the Middle East and North Africa have more solar potential per square inch than any other region in the world—more energy potential, in fact, than all of the oil ever extracted from deep beneath its sand dunes. The

The extension of the empathic bond is the social glue to establishing a global network of millions of human beings. It's probably not surprising that in the most technologically advanced countries, where self-expression is high, the older theological consciousness, with its emphasis on strict external codes, the communal bond, and a hierarchically organized command and control, is losing its hold. Religious hierarchies make less and less sense in a fl at, networked world.

When I empathize, I feel the frailty and transitory nature of another's existence. To empathize is to root for the other to flourish and experience the full potential of their short abide.

stability of the capitalist system is shaken by the alternation of attempts to stop economic progress in order to protect old investments and tremendous collapses when those attempts fail.

This means that for the past thirty years, we have been wasting 86 percent of the energy we use in the production of goods and services.

The devil is already at the door, cleverly disguised as an engineer.

Africa, in particular, has barely begun to exploit its renewable energy potential. Energy analysts say that solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, and biomass sources could more than supply the energy needs of every continent. The key is providing a favorable playing field, and that means financial aid, technology transfer, and training programs to assist developing nations, like the ones being advanced by the EU/AU partnership.

We think of GDP as a measure of the wealth that a country generates each year. But from a thermodynamic point of view, it is more a measure of the temporary energy value embedded in the goods or services produced at the expense of the diminution of the available energy reserves and an accumulation of entropic waste. Since

a Cisco report uncovered the fact that only 35 percent of mobile data use was "on the move," while 40 percent was from home, and 25 percent from work.

new technologies are going to make the airwaves "so abundant that there would be no justification for the government to ration access to spectrum or to give some services priority over others."46 In the near future, everyone will be able to share Earth's abundant free air waves, communicating with each other for nearly free, just as we will share the abundant free energy of the sun, wind, and geothermal heat.

When the price of oil on the world market began to fall, the American business community and the public lost interest in the great energy crusade. Carter's successor, Ronald Reagan, removed the solar panels from the White House roof and scrapped the wood-burning stove in the living quarters. America went back to business as usual, buying even larger gasguzzling vehicles, and using ever greater volumes of energy to support a wasteful, consumer-driven lifestyle.

The coming together of the Communications Internet, the Energy Internet, and the Logistics Internet in an Internet of Things provides the cognitive nervous system and physical means to integrate all of humanity in an interconnected global Commons that extends across the entirety of society.

An e-book can be produced and distributed at near zero marginal cost.

In the summer of 2009, a heat wave across France led to a shortage in cooling waters, forcing one-third of the nuclear power plants in the country to shut down.

Each rise in temperature of 1°C results in a 7 percent increase in the moisture-holding capacity of the atmosphere.36 This causes a radical change in the way water is distributed, with more intense precipitation but a reduction in duration and frequency.

Cisco systems forecasts that by 2022, the Internet of Everything will generate $14.4 trillion in cost savings and revenue.

I nostri pronipoti troveranno barbara l'usanza di nutrirsi di animali. Nei prossimi anni milioni di persone sceglieranno di mangiare a un gradino più basso della catena alimentare, così da permettere che milioni di altri possano ottenere quanto occorre per sopravvivere. Se ciò succederà, aumenterà il livello di salute globale - nostra, del Sud del mondo, del pianeta.

raises an interesting question about the new corporate giants that are colonizing large swaths of virtual space. He asks, "how hard would it be to go a week without Google? Or, to up the ante, without Facebook, Amazon, Skype, Twitter, Apple, eBay, and Google?

Tie Society, a start-up in Washington, D.C., stocks more than 300 designer ties—each of which, if bought, would cost an arm and a leg. For a monthly fee of $11, subscribers receive a box of sanitized ties to use, and they can change their tie selection monthly.

In Germany, a gas- or coal-fired power plant that might cost $1 billion to build, but that will no longer run at full capacity because of the onslaught of renewable energies into the grid, can only pay for itself on days when there is no wind or heavy cloud cover.

The British statesmen Ernest Bevin once quipped that "the kingdom of heaven may run on righteousness, but the kingdom of earth runs on oil.

Stuart Williams, a scientist at the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute in Louisville, Kentucky, is experimenting with taking fat-derived cells extracted during liposuction and mixing them with glue to print a heart. Williams believes that a 3D-printed "bioficial" heart may be possible in ten years.